


Bloodletting

by indevan



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Ghosts, M/M, Mild Gore, Vampires, Youkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-05-24 10:49:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6151162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moving back to Japan leads to many surprises for brothers Kagami and Himuro.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He knew he was being watched.  He didn’t have to glance back at shore to see the figure--a blotted shadow against the purple-gray of the sand.  Kagami turned towards the waves.  He would acknowledge him when the time came.  When he was ready.

It had only been five years since his sensitivity began but he already missed the sun on his skin.  He could sometimes remember it, barely, like the tune of a forgotten song or a specific taste or smell from childhood.  The warmth, stronger each year until it became unbearable--especially at the beach.  Water reflecting sunlight nearly seared his brain.

He sat, straddling his board, and looking out towards the moon.  He scowled at its fullness, at its milky light rippling across the water.  Waves were weaker at night, he thought, or maybe it was his bitterness.  He looked back at the shore, knowing the figure was impatient, and knew he had made him wait long enough.  Kagami paddled until he was able to put his feet down.  He untethered himself from his surfboard and tucked it under his arm as he walked ashore.  He drove the board down into the sand and turned to face his brother.

“Taiga.” His voice was stern, unwavering, and he knew he had done something wrong.

“Yes?” He cocked his head to the side, playing ever the innocent.

“Why haven’t you eaten?”

He rubbed the nape of his neck and looked away, scowling.  He felt like a little boy being chastised but Himuro was older than him.  With Alex not there, he was in charge.

“I ate.  This evening.  I had an Oki Dog--”

“Taiga.” Himuro’s eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean.  You can’t last like this.”

He exhaled through his nose. “I haven’t found anyone viable.”

“Then be less picky.”

“We can’t all be greedy like you, Tatsuya.”

To that, he merely grinned.

“We can’t, no.  People would get suspicious if there were two of us.  But you have to eat tonight.  It’s been over a month.  You’re starving.”

Kagami frowned but dropped his arms, relenting.  Himuro was right, of course, and he couldn’t put it off forever.  Already the pangs in his stomach had begun and he had felt dizzy and delirious when he awoke that evening.

“Fine.  But can we get tacos after?”

Himuro’s smile became gentler, more fond, and he put an arm around his shoulder.

“Anything you want, little brother.”

\--

The club was packed.  Kagami could feel the pulses of the people around them, see them at their necks, in their wrists.  Smoke filtered over the crowded dance floor and lasers flashed in time with the music.  Kagami saw Himuro up against a guy in the corner, his lips so close to his throat.  He had already made his choice.  Unlike him, his brother wasn’t picky.  He had cast aside that shred of humanity long ago.  His own greed had seen to that.  Though they only needed it once a fortnight or a month if they really wished the stretch it, Himuro fed at least several times a week.  He didn’t judge his brother for it, not really, but he couldn’t do that himself.

Kagami’s eyes wandered towards the bar for a bit of a respite from the sweaty crush of people.  The bartender was a flinty-eyed woman who kept a semi-circle of open space around the bar, not letting the dancers in too close, away from the floor.  He took solace there, up near the bar.  The bartender eyed him and he held his arm up with his wristband.  To that, she relented with a hitch of her chin and began mixing a drink for the girl next to him.  Kagami breathed easily and looked around for someone.  He had a method for picking his meals.  He knew this was counterproductive and that it didn’t make up for what he did but it gave him a little solace over the years.

The girl next to him kept bumping into him as she stirred her straw in her drink and talked animatedly with another girl.  She was dressed similarly to the other girls in what was almost a uniform: a tight minidress and a pair of spiked heels.  She was laughing and smiling and Kagami felt envious.  He couldn’t have that, not anymore.  He only had Himuro and Himuro only had him.  That was how it had to be.

He watched the girl set her drink on the bar so she could show her friend something on her phone.  Whatever it was made both girls crack up.  Kagami knew he shouldn’t stare, shouldn’t be so openly jealous, but then he wouldn’t have seen it.  A man--tall and lanky with a well kept goatee--came and slipped something into her drink.  Kagami saw the powder dissolve, saw that the bartender was occupied fixing a drink at the other end of the bar.  The man leaned against the bar on Kagami’s other side and tried to look nonchalant but he could see the tension, the want, in the way he held his body and the set of his mouth.  The girl put her phone back and reached for the drink.  Kagami jerked his elbow, spilling it on the floor.  She let out a gasp as it splashed on her arm and side.

“Oh, shit!” he exclaimed, trying not to sound like the bad actor he was. “I’m so sorry.”

The girl looked at her soaked arm.

“I’ll buy you another one,” he said quickly and his eyes flicked to the man.  He was mad.

“Sure--thanks.” She grabbed a handful of cocktail napkins from the bar and blotted her arm. “No harm, dude.”

She smiled and repeated her drink order to him.  Grenadine, Sprite, vodka.  He nodded and relayed it to the bartender.  As he passed over cash, he leaned towards her.

“That guy behind me,” he whispered. “He put something in your drink.”

Her eyes widened and she grabbed her friend’s wrist.  She took her new drink, thanked him, and they both left.  He could feel the man’s eyes on him, boring holes into the back of his head.  Kagami turned.

“I’m clumsy,” he said with a shrug.

The man wasn’t buying his earnest act.

“You fuck--”

He held a hand up. “Let’s take it outside.  This is no place to fight.”

Kagami flicked the ring at the end of his necklace as he followed the man outside.  He always felt this way before.  He swallowed nervously, the hollowing pinging of his finger against the ring marking the time his pulse would have made.

The alley on the side of the club was shadowed from the moon and streetlights.  Kagami could hear traffic and laughter but it was dulled and faraway.  Through the soles of his boots he could feel the bass of the club music but otherwise it was chillingly quiet.

“Why did you do that?” the man demanded.

He really was gangly, Kagami thought.  He was tall but not taller than him and skinny.  Kagami was easily twice as broad as him.

“Stop you from raping that girl?” he asked. “My apologies.”

“Fuck off, I--”

He cut himself off with a growl and lunged him.  Kagami sidestepped him and grabbed his wrist.  The bones cracked under his hand like twigs.  The man cried out.  Kagami spun him around to face him.

“Don’t worry,” he said icily, “it’ll never happen again.”

The man’s eyes widened in fear as Kagami’s face settled into what it naturally was.  His furrowed brow and yellow, red-rimmed eyes.  The fangs that extended from his teeth.  He sank them into the man’s neck and let the blood flow into his mouth.  His senses were alight, his nerves on fire.  He lapped the blood hungrily and, as he always did, mentally chastised himself for going so long between feedings.  It made sense at the time but when he was eating, he forgot his reasons, forgot his methods for choosing victims.

He sucked the man dry and dropped his corpse.  There would be no evidence because Kagami had no fingerprints, nothing to identify him.  Any records they had would be a half-century out of date, anyway.  Even so, leaving a body out here in the relative open wasn’t wise.  He knew that he would be making another trip to the beach that night.

\--

Kagami met Himuro fifty years ago.  He had come to America with his family from Japan to start college.  He didn’t have much of a grasp of English but the boy he met at the basketball court didn’t mind.  He spoke Japanese, too.  He saw him mostly at night a few times during the day.  He helped him with his technique and helped him learn English but never told him anything about him.

“My name is Himuro Tatsuya,” he would say, “That’s all you need to know.”

Kagami grew to like him.  He looked forward to seeing him, to playing one on one with him.  He made him feel less alone in Los Angeles.  His parents still worked a lot but didn’t want him living on campus.  He came home to an empty house every day after class.  By day he went to the beach but at night, he met with Himuro on the basketball court.

One night, he saw that Himuro wasn’t alone.  Occasionally they played streetball with other university students but something told him this woman was different.  She was older, perhaps in her thirties, and had an eerie luminescence to her skin.  Her blond hair seemed to float around her and she smiled at him as she adjusted a pair of pink-rimmed glasses.  Himuro stood next to her, his head hung, as if he were a child being disciplined.

“Is this him, Tatsuya?” she asked.

He nodded.  She said something else in a language that was neither Japanese nor English.  Himuro responded in it.  Kagami stood there, clutching the ball between his hands, and feeling far younger than his twenty years.  He caught a few of the words they were saying, having seen them written on street signs.  He figured that they were speaking Spanish and were intentionally doing t so that Kagami couldn’t hear.  Whatever she said made Himuro angry.  She struck him with the back of her hand and he fell, clutching his cheek.

“Taiga,” she said, turning to him.

Kagami stared at Himuro on his knees, hand holding his face, and back at her.

“I am Alexandra Garcia.  Would you like to come to our house for dinner?”

He didn’t want to but the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes made him nod.  Later, he found out that this was a twofold plan.  Part of it was a punishment for Himuro and the other was Alex’s need for a family.  She took him to a small apartment and gave him what she said was wine.  Himuro had to learn, she had said, not to play with humans.  That Kagami would become one of them with Himuro to watch over him.  He passed out from the wine after that, remembering only Himuro’s sad, apologetic gaze and the scent of blood.

\--

It was nearing dawn but a promise was a promise and so Kagami and Himuro sat outside an all-night taco stand, feasting.  Kagami loathed the eventual day when he could no longer eat real food.  It wouldn’t sustain him like blood but he could still eat it, still taste it.  Older vampires would be unable to process it at all.  Food and alcohol would leave them retching.  He knew he had several decades to go but it worried him.  He would miss real food far too much.

“Best fish tacos in La Brea,” Himuro said through a mouthful. “You’re welcome.”

He smiled and licked some avocado aioli from his fingers.

“Hey, it’s you!”

Kagami looked up from his taco, startled.  In front of him, he saw the two girls from the club.

“You?” Himuro asked.  Envy crept into his words and Kagami put a hand on his arm to settle him.

“You saved my life,” the girl said, eyes wide. “Thank you.”

He smiled, nodded, and the girls tottered off on their impossibly stacked heels.  The girl’s friend, he could hear, was calling an Uber.

“Don’t start,” Kagami said once they were out of earshot. “My meal presented itself to me tonight, that’s all.”

“So noble, Taiga.” He grinned wickedly.

“Ha.”

He bit down into his taco, hard, and was aware of his brother’s eyes on him.

“What?” he asked with his mouth full. “I told you--”

Himuro shook his head.

“Not that.  I was thinking.  Alex is gone, right?  So what’s keeping us here in the City of Angels?”

Kagami didn’t actually have an answer for that.  They had spent the better part of their afterlives in Los Angeles but neither were natives nor even from America.  They had both come from Japan.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m sick of the scene here.   _ Hell A _ .  I think we should go back to Japan.  For a little while, at least.”

He said it so suddenly but Kagami knew his brother better than that.  He had been thinking over this for some time.  He finished his taco and popped a piece of pico de gallo into his mouth.

“It’s a little ironic for two vampires to go to The Land of the Rising Sun, but fine.  Let’s go back to Japan.”

\--

Traveling was easier than it should have been.  They had no belongings they needed to take with them other than clothing.  Kagami reluctantly abandoned his board to some preteens just learning to surf in Zuma.  Their sensitivity to the sun was not yet fatal so a flight was arranged via Himuro’s glamor and they were landing in Tokyo.  It happened so fast, Kagami’s head nearly spun.  Then again, he had long since gotten used to the idea that when his brother wanted something, he went out and got it.

Glamor was a useful tool in setting up a residency, in settling in.  They had to have fronts for the neighbors and reasons why they almost never ventured out during the day.  Kagami was a student at the local university who only took night classes.  It was a good front and a way to impress their elderly neighbors who were nosy enough to wonder if they were NEETs or not.  Kagami was never a star student and even more than fifty years of being a vampire hadn’t helped that.  It made things more believable, at least, when he was in class, that he struggled.

Class was also where he met him.

It was a biology class and he was barely paying attention because there he was.  He could barely even smell his presence and his senses were better than even most other vampires’.  He was short and slight and almost looked like a high schooler playing at university.  His skin was deathly pale, even paler than Himuro’s, and his hair was a remarkable shade of sky blue.  Kagami made sure to stay far away from him in the lecture hall.  He did not make bonds with humans.  That way only led to danger.

He kept this up for the first month of classes.  He hadn’t fed yet and it was starting to get to him.  Everything blurred and stirred in his head and he found it harder to focus.  He found it hard to follow even if he and Himuro had kept up their Japanese over the years.  Everything was loud and quiet at once.  He was shaking.  Himuro was going to kill him.

“Do you need help?” the voice was quiet, polite.

Kagami turned and saw the boy.  He licked his lips at the sight of him but then clamped down on his tongue.  Not an innocent.  Never an innocent.  But he was so hungry.

“Yes,” he choked out.

The boy sat next to him and gently took the pencil from his shaking hands.

“Mitosis,” he said, “versus Meiosis.”

He spoke and the words registered but didn’t at once.  He could feel the walls of his stomach caving in.  His very cells cried for this boy’s blood.

“I should go,” he said abruptly, standing. “Thank you…”

“Kuroko Tetsuya,” he said and bowed.

“T--Kagami Taiga.” He bowed back.

In a rush, he grabbed his things.  On the way home, he followed a pervert from the train to a dark alley to suck him dry.  He breathed out shakily, satisfied.

\--

The boy, Kuroko, would not leave him alone after that.  He appeared like a spectre and refused to leave.  He would hover by him, help him study, and ask him to get food after class.  It was almost as if he knew Kagami didn’t want to risk befriending him and so tried all that much harder.  He was quiet and reserved and...breathtaking.

Kagami began to notice him in different ways.  The way his teeth worried over his lip as he worked through difficult subjects.  He said he was a humanities student and that Kagami struggled more with science than even he did.  He had a gentle sort of humor that could turn biting at a moment’s notice.

He was sure to keep their friendship hidden from his brother.  Himuro was jealous and protective of him to the point that it bordered on possessive.  He didn’t want Kuroko hurt.  That was why he had to end their friendship.  He was becoming as Alex had half a decade prior.  He would punish Kagami and he didn’t want death or  _ undeath _ to hurt his new friend.

It was hard, though, he realized a day after class.  Kuroko was kind and sweet and cute.  He was...Kagami was certain he was falling for him, falling for someone for the first time ever.  In his life before--and such a loaded word, that--he had never found someone he could love.  Over fifty years of being a vampire and he had kept to himself except when necessary.  Love wasn’t something vampires got to have.  Their own kind were so few and human lives were so fleeting.  Still, as he found himself spending more time with Kuroko, he found himself noticing things about him that made his stomach flip.

It was little things.  The brush of Kuroko’s cool hand as he took Kagami’s pencil for him to correct him on a concept.  The way his eyes could stare into his soul--if he had one.  He was good and Kagami was, by nature, bad.  It was as simple as that.  He and Kuroko could never be together.  They couldn’t even be friends.

He tried to forget his nature.  He skipped feedings for weeks, knowing it would damage him.  He wanted to feel.  Like something who could take Kuroko’s love, who deserved it.  It was foolish but he didn’t know how else to act.  He had never felt this way for anyone before.  Love, to him, had been his brotherhood with Himuro.  This new love was.  Confusing.  He went another night without eating and could feel his body rebelling.  His hand would spasm in class, causing him to drop his pencil.  He got a head rush whenever he stood.  The world narrowed to a tiny focus while his vision swam.  He wouldn’t last long.

“Kagami-kun is quiet today,” Kuroko said one day after class.

It had been over a month again and he hadn’t fed.  He nodded and said nothing.  His insides roiled and he felt like he would double over at any minute.  He stared at the pale slope of Kuroko’s neck and imagined his fangs sinking into it.  Imagined red running down to the collar of his striped shirt.  Imagined those eyes--those disarming, steady eyes--dimming with life.  It sickened him and turned him on at once.

“Did you think you did poorly on that test?”

“No, I...I think I did alright.”

_ Thanks to you _ , he thought bitterly.  He knew he shouldn’t have let himself get close, let himself befriend a human  They had only been in Tokyo for a few months and he was already ruining it.  Himuro suspected something, of course he did.  He saw his eyes when he declined going hunting, his claims that he had already fed.

“I...I’ll be right back,” he said. “I have to pee.”

He made a hasty exit away from Kuroko’s pulsepoints.  Away from the danger.  He found a man taking upskirt pictures of girls standing at the stoplight.  He would do.  Kagami waited for the girls to begin crossing the street to grab the man.  He dragged him away and, before he could get to the full cover of an alleyway, he bit down hard on his neck.  It was late and the streets were nearly deserted here.  It didn’t matter, though.  He was blinded by his hunger.  Kagami was so overzealous that he tore the skin.  He drank the blood greedily, letting it stream down his chin as he held the man close to him.  He was limp but still grasping at him in surprise.  It had happened so fast for him.  Kagami opened his mouth to make the wound bigger, to drain his blood faster.  The man’s hand dropped to dangle lifelessly at his side.  He slumped back, mouth agape.  His cell phone fell from his hand to clatter to the ground, its screen cracked.  Still, Kagami fed.  He lapped up the blood in earnest.  He tore the flesh of the man’s throat more, making it gape open.  He couldn’t deny this, couldn’t deny himself.  He was foolish to think he ever could and, in the moment, had no idea why he had thought to do so.

He heard a small gasp and dropped the body.  The man fell to the sidewalk, still and dead.  Kagami found himself staring at Kuroko’s shocked eyes.

“Kuroko, I--”

He knew that this could never last.  The two of them as friends, as more, was impossible.  He couldn’t change who he was.  He would have to leave before Himuro found out and would kill Kuroko.  He would claim it was for security, so no one could know the truth about them, but Kagami knew it would be his punishment for daring to get close to a human.  For taking attention away from him.

Kuroko’s eyes were on the man’s corpse.  His mouth was slightly parted and he took in a breath.  He dropped to his knees and tucked them under himself like a house guest sitting at a table.  His mouth began to stretch, oddly widening around sharpening teeth.  Dozens of them, needle-sharp.  Kagami took a step back, confused.  His eyes became a burning red and a long tongue slipped out to run over the edges of his teeth.  Kuroko leaned down and buried his face into the man’s belly.  The air filled with the wet sounds of chewing.  He watched his little study buddy from biology class devour the corpse of the man he had just killed.  He tore the clothes to get to his flesh and soon all that remained were the bloody tatters of the man’s suit.

Kuroko sat up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.  He gently placed them on the tops of his thighs.  His face reverted to normal and he smiled at him, his cheeks painted with the man’s blood.

“Thank you, Kagami-kun,” he said, “I hadn’t eaten for weeks.”


	2. Chapter 2

Kagami shifted nervously on the hard-molded plastic of the seat.  He looked across at Kuroko who sipped innocently on a vanilla shake as if he hadn’t just eaten a man’s body several minutes previously.

“What are you?” he asked.

“What are _you_?” Kuroko asked back.

He supposed that that was fair.  He unwrapped one of the burgers on his tray and took a bite.

“I’m a vampire,” he said once he’d swallowed.

“But you’re eating a burger.”

Kuroko’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Well...there’s a lot of stuff about vampires that movies mess up.  It all gets confused and warped together,” he said, “You can eat ‘regular’ food for about a century after you’ve been turned but then it starts to make you ill.  You have to feed about every week but I...stretch it out.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “After I feed, I never remember.  I think mostly because I don’t enjoy taking human lives.”

Kuroko nodded and moved his straw up and down in the lid.  The plastic-on-plastic scratching noise made Kagami grit his teeth.

“What else about vampires?” he asked.

“Um…” He had never been asked about his race before.  He figured it would be best to just repeat what Alex had told him. “Crucifixes, running water, holy water, and garlic don’t do anything.  The only thing that can really kill us is being stabbed in the heart or head.  Or shot, I guess.  Sunlight is weird because for about fifty years we can go out into the sun but then the sensitivity starts.  By the end of the first century it can hurt you but not kill you.”

Kuroko nodded again and Kagami wondered if this was just a tactic to avoid talking about himself.

“How long have you been a vampire?”

“Fifty-six years.”

Kuroko mouthed the number and then said, “When were you turned?”

“When I was twenty.”

He stared down at his shake and Kagami ate another burger, waiting to make his move.

“What are you?” he asked again.

Kuroko sighed.

“I...I _was_ Kuroko Tetsuya.  I was also twenty...when I died.” He looked out the window.

Kagami followed his gaze and saw Kuroko but not himself.  That he was used to.  He hadn’t seen his reflection in a long time.

“You’re a ghost?”

“Not quite.” His lips turned down and he said, “I was selfish in my life.  I wanted to put my beliefs on others, on who were my friends, and I was punished for it.  When I died, I was reborn as a jikininki.  Cursed to eat corpses.”

“But you’re solid.”

“I can look as human as I used to,” he said. “And I prefer it that way.  Like you, real food gives me no nutritional value but I go through the motions anyway.”

Kagami tried to wrap his head around it.  Kuroko was a spirit that ate corpses.  He was a vampire.  At least he no longer had to fear befriending a human.

“Kagami-kun…” He tilted his cup down to get more of his milkshake. “I...I have a proposition for you.”

He decided that this day couldn’t get any weirder and so nodded.  He couldn’t judge Kuroko for what he did--not when he himself was a killer, and he still...liked him.

“What is it?”

“Well...you have to feed and I have to eat and.  What if we became partners?” he asked. “When you feed, I...dispose of the body.”

Kuroko looked down at his cup and seemed a bit embarrassed.  Kagami looked at him and thought, no, that wasn’t a terrible idea.

“I feed rarely, though,” he said. “If you want to eat well, I’ll introduce you to my brother.  He feeds a few times a week.”

“Oh.  Okay…”

Somehow, Kuroko sounded oddly disappointed.

\--

“Taiga, who is this?”

Himuro’s gaze was stormy.  He could feel the anger radiating off of him and Kagami stepped in front of Kuroko.

“This is Kuroko.  He’s a…”

“Jikininki,” Kuroko supplied.

“A youkai?” Himuro whipped his head to glare at Kagami. “Why did you bring him into our house?”

“He’s my friend!” Kagami snapped.

Kuroko’s eyes widened and a small smile appeared on his face.

“I set up an agreement with Kagami-kun,” he said quietly. “When you feed, I dispose of the body.”

Himuro curled a lip in disgust.

“We have no fingerprints, no DNA, we leave no evidence.”

“With him, we leave no body at all.”

He knew, partially, that his brother was reacting out of jealousy.  Alex had used the method of killing his friends before she decided to turn Kagami in a way that had changed him.  Himuro folded his arms and scowled.  So often, it was hard for him to tell what Himuro was thinking but other times it was written plainly on his face.

“Fair,” he said.  He turned to Kuroko, “be useful, spirit, or you will regret the day you ever met my brother.”

Kuroko bowed his head and it was Kagami’s turn to scowl.  Sometimes Himuro still treated him like he was a child.  He had been an adult when Himuro had met him and yet he was constantly treated like he was a baby.

“I eat corpses,” Kuroko said simply. “I can help you.”

Himuro nodded, apparently knowing the nature of what he was, and turned away.

“I feed often,” he said, “so be prepared, spirit.”

Kuroko looked at Kagami and then back at him.

“That’s fine.” He narrowed his eyes. “Keep in mind my deal is with Kagami-kun, not you.”

Something unspoken was passing between them and Kagami felt lost.

“Whatever.”

Kuroko inclined his head and turned to Kagami.

“I’ll see you in class tomorrow.  Thank you for having me.”

He bowed and left.  The second the door closed, Kagami knew he was in for it.

“You befriended a youkai,” Himuro said icily.

“I thought he was human and I...was going to end the friendship, I swear.”

Himuro cocked his head to the side, the eye Kagami could see burning.

“It was irresponsible.”

“So I’m irresponsible!  I get it!  I just...I liked him!  Someone else I could talk to.  He was someone who wasn’t you!”

Himuro’s eye widened and he put a hand over his mouth.

“Shit.  Shit.  Fine.” He turned away. “We’ll talk more later.”

He stormed into his room, leaving Kagami wondered what in the hell had just happened.

\--

Kuroko knew he was a fool.  He was a fool for approaching Kagami in the first place and an even bigger fool for getting a crush on him.  He hadn’t felt that feeling in such a long time--since before he died--and thought that it was gone along with his mortality.  Then he saw the boy in his biology class.  He thought he was attracted to him because of the smell of death but it wasn’t the case.  It was his broad, open face and his worried little laugh when he’d be confused on a concept.

Now Kuroko was a fool for going along with him.  He had wanted their partnership to be confined to them.  For them to work together and maybe kiss.  Now he walked the streets with Kagami’s brother who clearly didn’t trust him.

“You don’t look alike,” he said.

“We have the same Maker,” he replied. “That’s why he’s my brother.”

“Oh.”

“What did you do in life that cursed you?”

Kuroko didn’t speak, didn’t want to answer him.  It was none of Himuro’s business, anyway.  He glared at him and he smiled.

“I see.”

They walked towards a bar and Kuroko crossed his arms.  He didn’t like the way Himuro looked at him.  He seemed to be appraising him, sizing him up.

“What do you want with my brother?”

“I…”

What _did_ he want with Kagami?  He had set up this arrangement at least partially to benefit himself but it would also lead to spending more time with Kagami, which was something else he wanted.

“I don’t know yet.”

Himuro eyed him and said, “Figure it out.  I won’t let you toy with him.”

“I wouldn’t dream to.”

“Hmph.”

They spoke little after that since Himuro found his victim and they made quick work of the man.  Kuroko finished his feeding and sat back, feeling full again.  He was sure it was a phantom fullness but it was good, it made him feel whole.

“Come on,” Himuro said. “I’m still hungry.”

\--

Being a spirit, he was certain that his actual body could not change from its shape before he died.  Still, if it could, Kuroko figured that it was safe to assume that he would have put on quite a bit of weight.  Between Himuro’s feedings and Kagami’s more sporadic ones, he was eating better than he had in the entire decade of his curse.  Rarely a night went by that he didn’t eat at least one body.  Himuro seemed to be testing his limits, feeding more than once a night.  Kagami kept to a more regular schedule now that he wasn’t trying to punish himself by not eating.

Tonight they were together and Kuroko wondered if anyone seeing them thought they were on a date.  He kind of hoped that they did.  Part of him wanted to reach out and hold Kagami’s hand but he didn’t.  He didn’t know how Kagami felt about him and that was frustrating.  He seemed to treat him like a friend, like his little study buddy, but that was all.  He wanted to know more, he wanted to know if his feelings were for naught.

“I still don’t get that one part of the chapter,” Kagami said. “About what does what.  Who even knows what the mitochondria does?”

Kuroko dragged himself back to reality and said, “The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, Kagami-kun.”

“Gee, thanks.”

It was all too normal, like they really were two university students out for a walk after class.  Kuroko kept an eye out for any potential victims.  Kagami was far more discerning about his choices.  His feeding was some kind of vigilante justice, almost, over the creeps of the city.  He said he felt better if he convince himself that they kind of deserved it.  He let himself walk into him a bit, let his shoulder brush Kagami’s elbow.  The difference in their size was one that made him shudder.  It reminded him a bit of before but he didn’t let himself linger on that.

“Do you see anyone?” he asked.

Kagami shook his head. “Not yet.”

In the few times that he had been out with Kagami to feed, he did so quickly and without frills.  Himuro enjoyed toying with his victims, luring them in with his beauty.  Part of him wanted to see Kagami let loose.  He knew that he had better senses than even other vampires, just as Himuro’s glamor was more powerful.  He was strong, too, and Kuroko wanted to see that strength.

In the end, the man found them.  He sat them walking, saw Kuroko’s shoulder touching Kagami’s, and got an idea in his head.  He came at them, shouting names and slurs.  How they made him sick.  Kagami narrowed his eyes and Kuroko saw true anger there.  He could feel it emanating off of him: the depth of his power.

Kagami took the man into an alley and flung him against the stone wall of a building.  The man gasped and his eyes bugged in pain.  Kuroko heard the sound of bones snapping.  Kagami grabbed him by the throat.  He let his fangs reveal himself and tore into the exposed flesh.  Blood spurted from his neck and Kagami caught it in his open mouth.  He sank them deep into the wound he made, gnawing on the skin with gusto.  He took a personal offense to the man’s words and Kuroko hoped it was for the reason that it rankled him.

The man’s body lay supine on the ground as Kagami drank from his throat.  One large hand pinned his chest down as if the man could still move.  Kuroko had never seen him react so violently, so intensely.  He felt his face slip into its true form and, even though Kagami was still feeding, he grabbed the man’s leg.  He tore at the tweed of his pants and began gnawing on the soft flesh of his thigh.  He ate his way up, devouring the man as he did.  He was close to Kagami, could hear the short, raggedness of his breath as he drained the man’s blood.

Kuroko sat up and felt short of breath, full and sated, but somehow still hungry.  Kagami looked at him, eyes yellow and brow furrowed.  His mouth was stained red and gore was smeared up his cheeks.  Kuroko bit his lip.  Without thinking, he pulled himself onto his lap and brought their lips together in a copper-tasting crush.  Kagami’s eyes widened in surprise and reverted back to the warm crimson they were normally.  Kuroko held him tightly and deepened the kiss.  Kagami’s hands came around to hold his back, cradling him against his broad chest.

“Kagami-kun,” he whispered, “I know you don’t have a pulse but do you have blood?”

“Why?” he asked. “Do you want to suck it?”

“That isn’t what I want to suck.”

A blush spread on his face, going up to the roots of his hair.  Kagami stared at him, breathless, and then nodded.  They resumed kissing as if they were alone and somewhere secluded rather than surrounded by the bloody smears that remained of the man.

“Do you have a place you…” Kagami asked.  A blush still stained his cheeks, visible despite the gore.

“Yes.  My old house.” Kuroko told him this between kisses. “My parents left when I died.”

He nodded and they walked hand in hand to the station.  Kagami looked nervous and kept glancing out the window.  He saw the look of worry.

“Is it Himuro-san?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s.  I’ve never…”

“Oh.”

He hadn’t thought that Kagami might have been a virgin.  He had been alive for so long.  It was almost...thrilling.  He grinned.

“It’ll be fine, Kagami-kun.”

When they got to Kuroko’s house, they were all over the place.  They kissed and kept kissing until they made it to Kuroko’s bedroom.  Kagami felt hot and cold at once, his face flushed but his touch icy.  Kuroko rarely felt anything but he could feel every inch of Kagami pressed against him.

“I’m sorry,” Kagami whispered, “I’m sure this is out of nowhere.”

“I kissed you, Kagami-kun,” Kuroko said back. “I wanted this.  I’ve...wanted this.”

“Oh.” He flushed again. “That’s.  Okay.”

They kept kissing and, somehow, their clothes were gone.  Kuroko barely remembered how they got that way but now he could run his hands all over Kagami’s naked body.  He could see the length of him.  He could take him into his mouth without inhibition.

The actual sex was awkward.  Kagami fumbled and stumbled but he was eager and Kuroko was happy to lead him along.

“Whoa,” Kagami said afterwards.

He was spent on his back, arms out, and his gaze fixed on the ceiling.  Kuroko curled against him and rested his head on his chest.

“I’m glad you’re tangible,” he said, “that I can.  That we can.”

Kuroko smiled and nuzzled his nose against him.

“Himuro-san won’t be mad.”

“He will be but he can suck it up.” Kagami held him close and kissed the top of his head. “No pun intended.”

Kuroko knew this was very fast, but he didn’t mind.  Feeling himself thrust up into Kagami, feeling his hands on him.  He hadn’t felt anything in such a long time.  His body had been physical but he had cut himself off.  He was a spirit, a youkai, he wasn’t meant to find this again.  Especially not with a returnee vampire from his bio class.

“Get some sleep, Kagami-kun.”

He nodded and let his eyes fall closed.  Kuroko got up from bed and stretched.  He kissed Kagami gently and pulled the blanket over his head in case he stayed sleeping past dawn.  He made his way to his window and opened it to the cool night air.  He stopped and put both hands on the sill.  He saw something silhouetted against the light of a streetlamp.  Kuroko narrowed his eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

The tanuki didn’t answer but he could hear its laugh echoing off of the empty streets.  He frowned and closed the window.  They would know he wasn’t truly dead, then.  It would only be a matter of time.


	3. Chapter 3

Himuro stared at the text message and tried to assess his feelings.

**(Taiga):** spent the night at kurokos

He knew the implication but was surprised.  For one, his little brother had been a virgin for seventy-six years and two, he wasn’t sure if you could  _ have _ sex with a spirit.  Then again, there were a lot of non-ghost qualities that Kuroko possessed.  He wasn’t a ghost, Himuro reminded himself.  He was a jikininki.  Himuro bit his lip.  Kagami’s angry words echoed in his head.  Someone who wasn’t him.  Keeping him from other people.

In the five years between his turning and Kagami’s, Alex had punished him whenever he dared befriend another human.  She would kill them in front of them and sometimes make him feed on them.  She was intent on making sure that she was the only one in his life.  It was at odds with her strange desire to make her own little vampirical family.  Kagami was the one she had chosen for that.  He was the one out of all the boys Himuro had tried to befriend that she spared, if you called it sparing.  He chuckled at himself.  He was being dramatic.  In truth, he much enjoyed being a vampire.  Prior to his transformation, he had been a bulimic ex-athlete going nowhere.  Alex had found him and had “saved” him in a way.

And he had begun to turn into her.

That part sickened him.  There was also as much hatred for his Maker as there was admiration and love.  She had the power to call to him and Kagami whenever she chose--wherever she was.  He often wondered if some day she would return and she would have them heel to her once more.

Himuro stared at the text, wondering if the implications of it were an assumption or fact.  Despite having no action ever, he ventured to guess that his brother wasn’t one to kiss and tell.  He wouldn’t outright say that he and Kuroko slept together, if they had.  That troubled him.  It wasn’t envy, not really.  He was worried.  They had known each other only a few short months.  He hesitated to think what could have led to their coupling.  Taking a deep breath, he sent back a series of winking emojis.

**(Taiga):** how did u know?

Himuro’s eyes narrowed.  So it was true.  He had to not react on impulse.  He didn’t want to be Alex.  He wasn’t going to be Alex.  He remembered the look on Kagami’s face when he yelled at him.

**(you):** lol ghost dick

Truly, he wanted to know why they were going so fast.  That going so fast wasn’t going to end well.  That Kagami was still to inexperienced but--no.  He wasn’t going to do that.  Kagami was right--he was an adult.  Himuro had to treat him like one.  Their actual physical difference in age was only a couple of years, after all.

That was why Himuro didn’t go after him, didn’t question him anymore.  He stared at his phone, fighting every urge to chase after him.  He put it in his pocket and opted to go to his new favorite haunt.

It was odd to find a late night bakery and café but Himuro loved it.  It was called Sweet Violets even if the place smelled like lavender and baked goods.  He stepped in and breathed deeply.  Eating real food was still a struggle for him but he was getting better at it.  Feeding greedily was so much easier because he could convince himself it was for life.  He envied Kagami, really.

He stared at the bake case and thought about what his brother was doing now.  If he and Kuroko were still up to whatever it is they were up to.  If he had fallen asleep.  He bit his lip, hard.  He didn’t want to keep thinking about it.  He had to stop this urge, this way of thinking.

“Do you want something?”

Himuro looked up at the now familiar flat tone of voice.  The cashier of the bakery whose flour-smeared apron declared him one of the bakers as well.  At Himuro’s eye-level was the other boy’s chest, which was surprising considering that he was rather tall himself. This boy was enormously tall--not just tall but big as well with powerful-looking arms and broad shoulders.  His long, lavender hair was pulled back halfway and he wore an expression of cool disinterest.

“Of course,” he said, smiling. “Don’t I always?”

He frowned and then shrugged one shoulder.

“Yeah.  I don’t know why you’re looking, though.  You always get a red bean mochi bun.”

“You remember.”

He shrugged again.  There was something different about him, Himuro thought.  Something more akin to himself.  Suspicious and not just because the cute little bakery where he worked was open twenty-four hours.

He bagged Himuro’s pastry and rang it up.  He paid and Himuro put his elbows on the counter.  A distraction, for sure, from thoughts of what Kagami was doing.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Murasakibara.” He paused, shifted his gaze to the side and added, “Atsushi.”

“Himuro Tatsuya.”

Giving his full name, his real name, was a danger but he didn’t mind.  The suspicious air around him made Himuro feel oddly at ease.  As if he knew the power of real names.

“Muro-chin,” he said automatically.

“Sure.” He smiled. “Atsushi.”

He raised his eyebrows half a measure but then turned a big hand out in assent.  Himuro took his bag and waved as he exited.

“Muro-chin,” he said again.

“Yeah?”

Murasakibara glanced to the side and twisted his lips as if he were battling with his own thoughts.

“Be careful.”

Himuro nodded even though he didn’t know what he meant by that.

\--

When Kagami first awoke, he was disoriented.  He sat up and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes and was surprised to see that it was still dark.  Even so, Kuroko had closed the curtains.  It made his heart flutter.  Kuroko.

He looked down at himself, at the little love bites and bruises that were already healing.  He framed one on the inside of his thigh with his hands.  He knew, logically, they were moving far too fast.  Himuro had told him many of their kind used sex easily to get what they wanted, taking partners to bed without a moment’s hesitation.  Kagami hadn’t been like that but one kiss from Kuroko and he was letting himself be undressed and fucked.  Maybe it  _ was _ a vampire thing where they reacted in such a way.  He had no idea.  It wasn’t as if he had gotten a 101 class when he was turned.  He learned basics: what could and could not kill him.  Alex and Himuro had said nothing about his libido.

Still, despite the quickness, it had felt right.  Being with Kuroko had made sense.  He smiled to himself.  He wondered if it meant that they were boyfriends.  The idea excited him.  He had never known a vampire to be in a relationship before but, truthfully, he kept far away from any others of his kind in Los Angeles.

“Kagami-kun.”

He turned and saw Kuroko.  He was wearing an oversized white button-up shirt with only the middle buttons done.  The shirt slipped down, revealing his creamy shoulder, and the sleeves fell well past his hands.

“Kuroko,” he said and, suddenly, was embarrassed to be naked.  As if Kuroko hadn’t been the one to undress him.

Kuroko crawled across the bed to capture his lips.  Kagami slipped his hand behind his head to deepen the angle.  It felt so natural and easy.  He broke the kiss and stared at him with those big blue eyes.  It was strange, he thought, how such a soft blue could turn into a burning red.  How his mouth, wet and curved into a gentle smile, could become a maw full of needle-sharp teeth.

“I need to go,” he said and looked down. “There’s someone I have to see.  I...I think my old friends know that I’m not dead.”

Kagami didn’t know what that meant but it sounded ominous.

“Yeah, I’ll--I mean, I’ll go back to our place.  It’s near dawn anyway.” If he was spotted walking weakly due to the sun’s light, he would probably be arrested for public drunkenness.

Kuroko nodded. “Right.  I’ll see you in class, Kagami-kun?”

“If not sooner.”

He smiled and kissed him again.

“Yes.”

Kagami sorted around for his clothes and gave Kuroko one last kiss before he left.  He felt.  Good.  He almost skipped back to the train, to their apartment.  He knew he would catch hell from Himuro but it didn’t weigh on his mood.  His texts had seemed...unusual.  Maybe he was reacting to their fight.  He honestly had no idea.

He wished, then, that Kuroko had a smell, a scent of some sort.  He wanted to smell him on his clothes, on his skin, for a while.

\--

Kuroko moved stealthily, wanting to avoid detection.  If what he saw was truly what he saw, his secret was out.  For ten years, he had steered clear of them.  He let them believe that Kuroko Tetsuya had died as a human in a traffic accident.

He approached the shrine and wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t set foot through the archway.  He stood there, waiting, knowing they would come.

“Kuroko.  So he was right.”

He saw the priest approach.  He was dressed in his pajamas and slippers, a nightcap perched on his green hair.  On his shoulder was the tanuki he had seen earlier.

“Of course I was right,” he said with a laugh.

“Forgive me if I didn’t believe you.  We saw him die.”

“Well, he’s something.  Look.  He can’t enter.”

Kuroko folded his arms.  He hadn’t heard their back and forth in some time and he was already sick of it.

“Jikininki,” he said.

Green eyes widened behind his glasses.

“Oh.”

“Yes.  My punishment,” he said. “My curse.”

“Oooh.”

The tanuki hopped down from his shoulder and, when he did, he transformed.  A slim boy with sharp eyes ringed in black with shiny, dark hair.

“Takao,” Kuroko said, unable to keep the ice from his voice.

“Is that any way to greet old friends?  Can you believe him, Shin-chan?”

Midorima shook his head and sighed.

“Invite me in,” Kuroko said. “Remove the tag and let me in.”

“You are no longer a human boy,” Midorima said. “I will not allow you entry to this shrine.”

He frowned but he had to allow that.  Midorima was notoriously superstitious even outside the realm of magic.  He was foolish to think he would allow him in.

“You were with a human,” he said. “Takao saw you.  He...gave details.”

Takao tossed his head back in laughter. “Sure did!”

Midorima’s cheeks tinted and he cleared his throat awkwardly.

“What business of it is yours?”

He didn’t bother to tell them that Kagami wasn’t human.  That wasn’t their business either.

“You should know better than anyone why that’s a bad idea.”

“Especially with what happened last time,” Takao added.

Kuroko scowled.  He hadn’t come here to discuss his love life.  He had come...he had come for confirmation and he had it.  He turned to go.

“He will find out,” Midorima called after him. “And he’ll be jealous.”

He chose to ignore that.

\--

This time when Kagami awoke it was in his own bed.  He could see the glow of a streetlight through the curtains and yawned.  He looked down at himself again and wondered if he somehow looked different.  He couldn’t rely on a mirror, of course, so he prodded at his body to feel any changes.  The love bites were all healed and he kind of missed them.  He liked knowing where Kuroko had been.  Even the pain in his backside had subsided.  Sometimes, he thought, being a vampire with a healing factor sucked.  He cringed at the pun.

He rose from bed and stifled another yawn as he padded into the main room.  Himuro was at the table, reading a book.

“Don’t you have work?” he asked.

Himuro’s front involved working in a bar two stops away.  He was adept at making drinks and the job allowed him to work late hours.

“Don’t you have class?” he shot back.

Kagami shook his head.

“Not today.” He crossed to the kitchen to examine their cabinets. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for Kuroko, I’d have already flunked out of the class I’m not actually enrolled in.”

“Yeah, he sure has taught you about biology and anatomy, huh?”

Kagami’s face flushed and he turned away from the cabinets.  He caught the edge in his brother’s words.  Himuro’s face was impassive and blank but there was no doubting the fire that tinged his voice.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked, knowing he was stepping into a viper’s den.

Himuro opened his mouth and then shut it.

“What?” Kagami pressed.  That wasn’t like him.

“I’m...trying,” he said, looking up from his book. “to not become her.  Fully.”

That was it.  He was struggling but he was trying not to become Alex.  Kagami had only spent a brief time with her after he was turned but Himuro had had the full five years.  She had maybe been kind once but centuries of life had hardened her, made her sadistic.

“So you’re not going to get all...possessive and jealous?” he asked.

Himuro shook his head.

“No.  Or I’ll try not to.  It’s hard shaking over fifty years of behavior.  But.  You seem happy.  And he’s not at human, at least.”

He turned a page in his book and Kagami got a chance to glance at the cover.  It was about local spirits and creatures.

“Is that for Kuroko?”

Himuro looked at the book and then shook his head.

“No.  I’m...trying to figure something out.”

He sounded properly cryptic but Kagami also didn’t want to press him.

“Hey, Tatsuya?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He smiled fondly.

\--

She walked along the streets that had once been familiar.  She had come here, trailing behind him as he rushed to Kuroko’s house.  His secret passion, the boy who confronted them all.  She kept walking, trailing her fingers along walls as she passed.  Flowers turned their heads toward her and she shooed them away.

She was a girl who had been told she was not a girl.  A girl who had signed her name a long, long time ago.  She didn’t tell him yet about Kuroko.  From what Takao had told her, it would only make him jealous.  He would find out eventually but now was not the time.  She had to warn him.  It wasn’t him.

She knocked on his door, hoping he would be there.  Maybe the human boy would be there.  She wondered what he looked like.  What his new man was like.  What was it that now captured his undead heart.

The door opened and Kuroko was on the other side.  He blinked at her impassively and she knew he was expecting her.

“Tetsu-kun!” she said excitedly.

She threw her arms out to wrap around him and he patted her on the back.  He broke the embrace and stepped aside.

“Come in.”

She followed him into the house.  It was dark and cold and felt unlived in.

“Midorin sent me,” she said.

“I figured.  Would you like something to drink?”

He opened a small fridge and Momoi was surprised to see that it had power.  An orange extension cord snaked out of it and into the house next door.

“Theft?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It’s power.  I wanted to have a fridge for--well, do you want something to drink?”

He cut himself off and she knew he was referring to his human boyfriend.  The one Takao had seen.  As much as she still loved him, she thought it was foolish.  He knew what happened.  Their kind and humans ended badly.  It had before and it had just weeks ago.

“How long have you been seeing him?” she asked.

Kuroko glanced at her and, for a moment, his blue gaze turned red.  It reverted to normal and he blinked at her.

“You get right to it, Momoi-san.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “We have known each other for a couple months.  Last night was the first time we were...well, anything.”

“Wait--you just jumped right into sleeping with him  _ last night _ ?”

Kuroko nodded.  That surprised her.  Before, he had been far more reserved--she had had to hear his complaints for weeks about Kuroko not “giving it up”--so this was a surprise.

“It’s not any of your business,” he said. “It felt right so we did it.  End of story.  Now do you want something to drink?”

She shook her head. “No thank you, Tetsu-kun.”

He shrugged and shut the fridge.  Kuroko crossed to a low-slung couch and sat down.

“You’re here to scold me for my relationship?” he asked.

“I wanted to see you,” she insisted. “We all thought you were dead.”

“I  _ am _ dead.”

She had to give him that.

“You should know,” she said quietly. “About what happened the last time one of us fell in love with a human.”

He clenched his jaw and she saw real anger on his face.  Kuroko normally kept everything to himself but the anger was on his face, clear as day.

“I was there,” he said simply.

“No, not you.” She looked down and back up. “Ki-chan.”

\--

Very few people noticed the nurse.  That was the thing about hospitals.  When someone looked like they belonged there, people ignored them.  The nurse’s scrubs were tighter than anyone else’s, the top curving over her full breasts, the pants hugging the plush swell of her backside.  A few men turned their gaze to her and she just paid them no mind.  She had a place to be.

The room was nicely furnished, she thought, a private room.  There were flowers in the corner from family and the television mounted on the wall was playing an infomercial.  She clicked it off and shut the door behind her.  Her image shifted from his idea of what a nurse looked like to the form in which he was most comfortable.  Model Kise Ryouta.  Beautiful, envied, sought after.  He walked around the room, wishing that it felt more like his.  Like there was a part of him here more than what was on the bed.

He knelt down by the bed and put his elbows on the blankets, propped his chin on his hands.

“You should wake up,” he said, “I miss you.”

That sounded childish.  Kise sighed and looked up at the flourescent lights on the ceiling.

“I wish this were a fairytale,” he mused, “and I could wake you up with true love’s kiss.  Although I think I look more like Sleeping Beauty.  What do you think?”

He shifted into a fair approximation of Disney’s version of the princess with her long blond hair and blue dress.  He returned to Kise and sighed again.  Tears pricked his eyes.  This was his punishment, wasn’t it?

He reached out a hand to stroke his face.  He could breathe on his own, the doctors said, but Kise knew that.  This was a psychic coma, a magical one.  To teach Kise a lesson.

“I have something for you,” he said quietly. “If you’ll wake up.  I promise it’s good.”

He knew it was to no avail.  He wouldn’t wake up until Kise recanted on his love for him.  That was the deal with the demon.  He wouldn’t, though.  He had never felt love like this, as cheesy as he knew that sounded.  He didn’t want to let it go.

“I’ll be back,” he told his prone form on the bed. “I promise.  I’m not leaving you, Kasamatsucchi.”


	4. Chapter 4

Kagami couldn’t help but wish that some movies got vampires right.  At this moment, he wished he could fly or turn into a bat or anything to get him from point A to point B faster.  He was going to be late to class if he didn’t run from the train station.  He was never a distance runner even back when he played sports as a human so he already had a stitch in his side two blocks from where he started.

At the halfway point, a black cat darted in front of his path.  Kagami jumped onto his hands to flip over it and hoped that his little acrobatic stunt didn’t garner too much attention.  That, at least, he could do.  The cat hissed and clawed at his wrist, nearly making him fall over himself.  Kagami caught himself and leapt back onto his feet.  He glared at the cat who hissed in return.  He hissed back, baring his fangs.  The cat let out a frightened meow and disappeared into the shadows.  Kagami reverted his face to its more human facade and took off once more.

He was breathless by the time he made it into class two minutes past the start time.  He saw that the front podium was empty and cursed himself.  He had run all that way and the professor wasn’t even there.

“Did you run here?”

He turned to see that Kuroko had already arrived since, unlike him, he was prompt and on time to class.  He nodded, still unable to do much more than gasp for breath.  Kuroko shook his head and laughed softly.

“Kagami-kun?”

He turned to see one of their classmates blinking up at him.  He normally sat a few rows ahead of him and Kuroko and, so far, he hadn’t even known what his face looked like.  His scent was familiar, though.

“Hey,” he said between pants.

“I was wondering if you had the notes from last lecture,” he said. “I missed them.”

Kagami stared down at the chicken scratch that constituted his notes.  Most of it was in English.  He winced and looked back up.

“I think Kuroko might.”

He turned and nearly jumped, apparently not having noticed him sitting next to him.  Without batting an eye, Kuroko handed over sheets of notebook paper.

“Here you go, Furihata-kun.”

He grinned. “Ah, thank you.  I’ll get it back to you as soon as I copy it.”

He dashed back to his seat and Kagami turned to face him, furrowing his brow.

“You know his name?”

Kuroko shrugged. “I spoke to him the first few days in class when you were avoiding me.”

“I never avoided you.”

He fixed him with a look and Kagami glanced away, sheepish.

“Alright, maybe a little.  But I didn’t want this to be some weak-ass vampire book or something.  Falling for a human.”

He stuck his tongue out in disgust and Kuroko chuckled.

“Fair enough.  All that matters is…”

Kuroko reached out and took his hand, lacing their fingers.  Kagami felt his face heat up but smiled.

“So...are we boyfriends now?  Because I don’t get bare ass naked with anyone,” he said.

Kuroko’s eyes shone. “I’d like that.  Killer boyfriends.”

“Only I do the killing, smartass.”

If he was going to say anything else, it was drowned out by the sudden loud squealing that filled the air.  Kagami put his hands over his ears, cursing his heightened senses and several other students glanced towards the door.  The professor was still detained and, already, people were whispering about getting up and leaving.  This would probably push them over the edge.

“Kurokocchi!!”

A tall blur of gold burst into the lecture hall and dashed right towards his boyfriend.  Kuroko’s face was impassive as he was hugged from the side by a boy.  Kagami immediately smelled something strange about him.  He was tall and lean with blond hair.  His face was immaculately sculpted as if he were an airbrushed model in a magazine, even if it was currently spread wide into a bright grin.

“Hello, Kise-kun,” he said politely. “What are you doing here?”

He let up and flicked some hair from his eyes that were, curiously, bright gold.

“I heard you were enrolled in this class so I’m here, too, to learn about...whatever this is.”

“Biology.”

“Neat!”

He slipped into the seat on Kuroko’s other side, slipping his arm through his.  Kagami glared at him.  Was this the ex Kuroko had told him about?  He found it hard to believe since his boyfriend mostly annoyed by his presence.

“This is Kagami-kun,” he said, “my boyfriend.”

Kagami waved.  Kise blinked at him and cocked his head to the side.

“Really?  He’s handsome, I guess, but not really hot.  What’s with his eyebrows?”

“Fuck off!” Kagami snapped.

He wanted to say more but the professor finally showed up.  He contented himself with glaring at Kise for the rest of class.  Afterwards, he was intent on walking out with them and Kagami already didn’t like him.

“Kagami-kun and I have business,” Kuroko said. “I’ll see another time, Kise-kun.”

He seemed disappointed (said so, too, crying dramatically and exclaiming “Kurokocchi!”) but he left.

“I don’t need to feed for another few days,” Kagami said.

“I know.  I just wanted to get rid of him.  Kise-kun...he puts up many fronts and defense mechanisms and I grow tired of them easily.”

He nodded and they walked the nearly empty night streets together, hand in hand.

“What is he?” he asked. “I mean...he’s not human.”

“No.  He’s a kitsune.”

Kagami furrowed his brow.

“He’s a  _ ki _ tsune.  Named  _ Ki _ se?”

“Yes.  He thought the name was clever.”

“Christ.”

Kuroko chuckled and drew himself close against him.  His body, as always, was cool to the touch.

“There’s more of them, aren’t there?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m sure you’ll be meeting them soon.” He paused and added, “Sorry.”

\--

Kise was very good at hiding his emotions.  He felt torn up inside but he could still smile, preen, play the fool.  It was what he was best at and had served him well over his centuries of life.  He skipped into the bakery with a smile on his face that felt like ceramic, ready to crack at any moment.

He saw that Takao and Momoi were seated at a table and he slid in, all grins.

“Hey,” he chirped.

“Where did you come from?” Takao asked, cocking a brow.

“Class.  I snuck into Kurokocchi’s class because I wanted to see... _ him _ .” He raised his brows and dropped his voice to a whisper, “the human.”

Momoi leaned forward and propped her chin up on her hands.

“Describe.”

Kise tapped his chin with his finger.  He heard a disinterested grunt from behind the counter and knew that Murasakibara was listening even if he didn’t want to be.

“He’s tall,” he said, “almost as tall as...anyway.  He’s broad, too.  Big hands, big shoulders.  He’s...handsome, I’d say.  Striking.  Weird eyebrows, though.”

He wrinkled his nose as Momoi and Takao laughed.  Of their group, he was closest with them.

“He’s got a big--”

“Kazunin!” Momoi snapped.

He shut his mouth but he was grinning.  Kise stole a sip from Momoi’s peach tea and glanced at the menu, wondering if he should order something.  Murasakibara  _ was _ a talented baker and the drinks he had put on the menu were pretty good as well.  He always told people about his family, the family was gone, to stave off questions as to why someone who looked to be in their early twenties owned their own bakery and café.

The door opened and Kise’s eyes widened.  The boy who entered was absolutely gorgeous.  His skin was polished marble and his hair was a sleek, glossy obsidian.  He was beautiful.

“Hi, Atsushi,” he said as he approached the counter.

That piqued Kise’s interest and actually managed to distract him from Kuroko for a minute.  He called Murasakibara by his first name?  Furthermore, he saw his friend already bagging something from the bake case.  This guy was a regular to the point where Murasakibara actually remembered his order.  He didn’t even care to remember  _ their _ orders and they were his friends.

He sprang up from his seat and went over to the counter.

“Your hair is sooo shiny,” he enthused. “What do you use on it?”

“Um.  Shampoo?”

“Yeah but what kind?”

His hair covered one eye and the eye Kise could see was wide with confusion.

“Ki-chin…” Murasakibara said warningly.

“What?” he asked innocently. “I’m just saying hi to your friend.”

“Don’t.”

The boy seemed amused by this.

“You’re Atsushi’s friend?  I’m Himuro T--Himuro.” He caught himself and smiled.

His smile was captivating, Kise thought.  Almost scarily so.

“Kise,” Takao called. “Leave him be.”

Kise gave a flirtatious wiggle of his fingers and went back to the table.

“It’s not good,” Momoi said. “Tetsu-kun is playing with fire this way.  And he should know better.”

She gave Kise a meaningful look and he tried to laugh it out but the laugh sounded like cracking ceramic.  He put his smile on his face.

“Look, when does Kuroko ever do what anyone tells him to?” Takao asked. “He does what he thinks is best, what he thinks it’s right and, last time, that got him killed.”

“Kuroko?”

They turned to see that Himuro was standing near their table.  He held his to go bag and his brow was furrowed.

“Um.”

“You know Kuroko?” he asked.

“Um.” Kise glanced at Takao who glanced at Momoi who glanced at Kise.

Takao, of course, regained his voice first.

“ _ You _ know Kuroko?”

“He’s dating my brother.”

Kise’s eyes went wide.  What a small world.

“But you’re hot,” he blurted.

Himuro narrowed his eye. “And?”

“Um.”

Momoi elbowed him.

“What’s this about him being killed?” His face remained blank but Kise could see a twinkle of something in his eye.

“It’s...for our LARP group,” Takao said quickly. “We LARP.  We’re LARPers.  LARPing is our passion.”

Kise and Momoi nodded animatedly.  Himuro didn’t seem convinced but he shook his head.  He started towards the door but before he left, he turned to Murasakibara and wave.

“Until next time, Atsushi.”

Kise noticed a faint blush on his friend’s cheeks as he waved back.

As Himuro opened the door to exit, a black cat snuck in the crack.  He didn’t seem to notice.  The cat wove in and out of the legs of their chair, its back arched.  The moment the door closed, Murasakibara scowled and pointed to a sign that showed a silhouette of a dog with a red no symbol around it.

“Mine-chin,” he said warningly, “no animals.”

The cat got out from under the table and transformed into their friend.  His face was set into a scowl but that was a normal occurrence.  Still, it seemed deeper today.

“What’s up?” Takao asked.

“Dai-chan?” Momoi raised her brow.

He turned to them and ruffled the back of his close-cropped blue hair.

“I found Tetsu’s boyfriend.”

“You stalked him?” Takao asked and let out a loud laugh.

“I  _ found _ him,” he corrected with a slight hiss.  He glared until Takao’s laughter died out. “Anyway--”

“Is he tall?  Ki-chan said he was tall.”

Aomine’s frowned deepened and Kise wondered if it would twist into his face.

“I guess.  Listen--”

“Did you see his eyebrows?” Kise asked, knowing it was riling him up. “They’re forked.  It’s so weird.”

“ _ Listen _ \--”

“What about his cock?” Takao asked with another peal of laughter.

Aomine let out an angry hiss.  They quieted and looked at him.

“I’m telling you--I don’t know what he is but whatever it is, it isn’t human.”

\--

Kuroko wiped his mouth and looked over at Himuro.  Like Kagami, his eyes seemed to glow after a feeding but right now those glowing eyes were trained on him and made him nervous.  He swiped at blood on his cheek and looked right back at him.

“What is it, Himuro-san?”

“I met some interesting people tonight.”

Kuroko could guess who he met.  He had somehow bumped into some of his old friends.  For a city so large, misfortune seemed to denote that his new friends would constantly cross paths with his old ones.

“I see.  Did they cause you any trouble?”

“They were...energetic.”

Kuroko took a clean tatter from Himuro’s victim’s jacket and cleaned his hands and face.

“Who were they?”

“A blonde boy, a girl with pink hair and a guy with really heavy eyeliner.”

As far as it went, those weren’t too bad, he thought.  Kise, Momoi, and Takao.  It wasn’t--or even worse.

“Ah.  I’m sorry if they bothered you.”

Himuro shrugged.

“I don’t care about me.  I can handle myself.  I’m just letting you know that if they find a way to get to Taiga, I will find a way to kill you, spirit.”

“Kagami-kun can handle himself as well.”

Himuro shook his head as if Kuroko was so naive and it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Doesn’t matter.  If anyone hurts him, I will hurt them back more.”

It was a silly-sounding threat but Kuroko knew that it should be taken seriously.  Himuro could get downright scary when it came to Kagami.  They had an uneasy truce at the moment but he knew that the moment anything happened to his brother, Himuro would strike.  Kuroko honestly had no idea if he could die--truly die--but he wasn’t willing to find out.

“I promise,” he said.

“Good.”

Himuro walked away from him.  When they were done, he always just left.  It wasn’t like Kagami--their arrangement really was purely business.

“I care about your brother,” he said to his retreating back.

He turned and his eyes were glowing angrily in the pale moonlight.

“Remember,” he said, “I am trying for Taiga’s sake but never, for a minute, think that you care about him more than I do.  You can fuck him but that’s all.  The moment you forget that, it’ll be your last.”

Kuroko watched him go and shuddered despite himself.  Himuro was honestly more than a little bit horrifying.

\--

Furihata cursed himself for missing the last train and having to walk home.  He extended his commute by at least an hour and wouldn’t get home until past midnight.  His bag was heavy on his shoulder and he had to keep shifting it as he walked.  He didn’t like walking these unfamiliar streets that he usually whizzed by safely ensconced in a train.  The map on his phone said he was going the right way, at least, and it provided much needed light in the dark night.

Streetlamps here seemed different from those closer to the university.  The light was a sickly yellow that pooled in circles and left great gaps of darkness between posts.  He dashed from light to light, his shaking hand holding his phone.  Furihata was glad he was so finicky about his battery life and kept it topped off at at least ninety percent at all times.  It would see him home.

He glanced at the directions and saw that he was to be on this street for another three blocks.  He tucked it into his pocket and walked as briskly as he could, weighed down with textbooks as he was.  He rubbed his knees and paused under the flickering light of a streetlight to catch his breath.  Above him, a precocious white mouth flew again and again at the curved plastic that encased the bulb.

“‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the spider to the fly…”

A voice echoed from the darkness and Furihata’s hand tightened on the strap of his bag.  He whipped his head around and saw nothing but gloom.  The pools of light left so much darkness covered and the watery light of the moon only did so much.  He could see the vague outlines of buildings and houses along the street and a shiver worked its way up his spine.

“Who’s there?” he called nervously.

A laugh echoed from everywhere at once.  Furihata lifted the strap off of his shoulder and twisted it around his hands.  He hefted it as high as he could in hopes of using it as a weapon.

From an alleyway, he saw a slim boy slip.  He was only a few centimeters taller than Furihata was but he seemed much larger.  His skin was so pale, he could almost see it glint in the gloom.  His skin looked dewy or wet like if he touched it, his hand would come back with residue.  He had oily black hair that fell in a tangle at the collar of his shirt.  His eyes glowed in the low light and the sight of them made Furihata lift his bag higher.  A pair of overly thick eyebrows were arched in wry amusement.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“It’s none of your concern.” He smiled wide, too wide. “All that matters is that I was hungry and then here you are.”

“Hungry?”

Was that a euphemism?  Furihata swallowed nervously.

“You look like a delicious little morsel,” he included and his voice was oddly hypnotic.  His grip on his back loosened and he let it drop next to him at his feet. “Come here, little fly.  My parlor is so nice.”

Despite his wishes, his feet moved forward.  As he did, the boy began to change.  He had multiple legs and his eyes--those awful glowing eyes--doubled and then doubled again.  His skin turned a brown-black, visible in the light of the streetlamp as he was close enough now.  He opened a mouth that could only be described as a maw.  Furihata saw his glistening teeth and leapt back.  He began to run.  He felt something wet and sticky wrap around his ankle and he fell.  He turned back and saw a strand of spider’s silk had snared him.  He was dragged back over the sidewalk and he could feel the cement scrape at the heels of his hands and elbows.  He was thrown up against the fence and the silk wrapped around his wrists and ankles.  He struggled and saw the boy draw closer.

“S...stop,” he pleaded, shaking like a leaf.

“Now, now...it’ll be over soon.”

He opened his mouth again and Furihata squeezed his eyes shut.

“Hanamiya.”

The voice that spoke was polite but commanding.  Furihata opened his eyes and saw a lone figure standing under the light.  He was short and slim with hair as bright as a red pepper.  The spider-boy he called Hanamiya turned and frowned.  He was much taller with his extra legs, his large spider body with his torso propped on it.

“This is my territory,” he said. “This is my prey.”

“It is not,” the young man said. “You know it is not.  Release him, Makoto.”

Furihata, scared though he was, found it rather odd that this horrifying spider monster had such a pretty-sounding name.

“Not even a nibble?” he asked, fluttering his eyelids.  He put his hands under his chin and tipped his head to the side. “Look how squishy he is. It would be a waste.”

He turned back to Furihata and squeezed his middle.  As he did, he licked his lips.

“I love college students,” he purred. “They get the most deliciously soft middles…”

“Enough.  Let him down.  Feed elsewhere.”

Furihata wondered who this could be who could try to command such a monster.  Hanamiya sighed and retracted his silk.  Furihata fell to the ground and stared up as his attacker slipped into the shadows.  He looked at his apparent savior and felt a tingle of fear down his spine.

“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head.

“Of course.” A slow smile spread on his face and it made him somehow more ill at ease. “I enjoy having humans in my debt.”

That...was terrifying.  Furihata felt himself begin to shake.

“Who are you?”

He smiled eerily and his eyes--one red and one a strange orange-gold color--twinkled.

“My name is Akashi Seijirou.”


	5. Chapter 5

Sometimes Aomine still woke up in a cold sweat.  He thought it was maybe because the memory was still fresh but he knew it was more than that.  Kuroko arguing with him over Akashi.  Adamant to the end that he was right.  What were they arguing about, really?  He just knew Kuroko was so convinced his way was best.  He still saw him in his mind’s eye.  He walked to cross the street and turned back to face him.  In his dream, his lips moved but he didn’t speak.  He saw him mouth, “Aomine-kun?” asking him to come with him.  It was more than just crossing the street with him.  If he stepped off that curb, he was throwing away what Akashi impressed upon all of them--how he ruled them all.  If he did, he agreed with Kuroko and entered a new world that was far too scary.

He never got the chance.

Even though the light hadn’t changed and the little walking man blinked and patiently counted down, the car came careening around the corner.  Aomine couldn’t move, couldn’t jump and save him with those reflexes he was so proud of.  Kuroko stared at the car and his eyes went wide and then the car hit him.  Aomine stared at his mangled body, at his blue eyes staring up at the sky, lifeless.  The car zoomed away but the driver didn’t live to the end of the day.  Momoi’s curse had seen to that.  Still, nothing could bring him back.  Nothing could bring his Kuroko back except, apparently, his own curse.

Aomine wondered how he had been viewed selfish enough to be reborn as a jikininki.  Was his insistence of his own way that selfish or did Akashi have a hand in it?  Had he not wanted Kuroko to go so easily, to get away with disrupting their group?  Maybe if he had, it was a way to punish Aomine just as he punished Kise.  He had no idea and, honestly, he wasn’t the heavy thinking sort.  All he knew was that Kuroko was back, he had been a ghost for ten years, and now he was seeing someone.

And who the fuck was Kagami Taiga, anyway?

“I don’t know, Dai-chan.”

He jerked his head up, realizing he had said that out loud.  Momoi sat across from him, reading a book.  She stretched her legs out in front of her as she turned the page.

“Can’t you...like...do a spell?  Find out about him?”

“You should know that magic doesn’t work that way.”

He scowled.  She had a point.  He  _ was _ her familiar, after all.  He pouted and slumped down.  There was more than just Kagami’s identity to deal with.  Kuroko had moved on.  Not only had he ignored him for an entire decade but he had the nerve to be with someone else.  He couldn’t believe that--as if they had really broken up.  Now Kuroko was with that...whatever he was, and doing all of the things that they used to do.  It rankled him.

“Stop pouting.” Momoi turned a page.

“I refuse.”

She sighed and shook her head.  Aomine rolled onto his back and tucked his hands behind his head.  He knew he was at least a little bit jealous.  Kuroko avoided him for years and now was with someone else.  Maybe he saw Aomine not following him crossing the street as a breakup.  As a tear in their relationship.

He flopped onto his side and earned himself a kick in the ribs from Momoi.

“Stop flopping,” she said. “Go to sleep or don’t.”

Aomine glanced at the window into the late evening night.

“I think I’m going out.”

\--

Furihata always had a problem with talking to strangers.  He was a bold child despite the fact that he was afraid of his own shadow.  He would go up to adults, put his hand in theirs, and introduce himself.  His mother would always dash over to him and drag him away, saying that talking to strangers was dangerous.  Yet, here he was, sitting in a little café, with a strange young man who was his apparent savior.

He stirred his milk tea and looked across the table.  The boy was sipping hot tea and, with his head bowed, Furihata could see the little horns that poked through his hair.

“Thank you,” he said, bowing his head.  He looked up and around. “It’s strange that this place is open twenty-four hours.”

“It’s not,” he replied simply. “Our kind keep odd hours.”

“Your kind,” Furihata repeated. “Which is?”

“Youkai.” His two different-colored eyes flashed. “I may as well be honest with you.”

Furihata sat up completely straight and gripped his cup tightly.  This was bad.

“You’re...a youkai?” He looked at the enormously tall boy who stood behind the counter wearing a bored expression. “Is he?”

“In a sort.  I’m a demon.”

“Do you want my soul?” he asked nervously.

“No.”

Akashi placed his cup of tea down in its saucer and folded his hands under his chin.  He leaned forward, eyes aglow.

“I want a favor, Furihata-kun.  In exchange for saving your life.” A slow smile formed on his face. “Like I said, I enjoy having humans in my debt.”

“What kind of favor?”

“I’ll let you know when the time comes.  Don’t worry about that.”

Akashi pulled back and frowned.  He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and shook his head.

“Sorry.  My...brother just told me that he thinks you’re cute.”

“Your…” Furihata shifted uneasily in his seat. “Him?”

He pointed back at the purple-haired boy and Akashi laughed.

“No no.” He tapped his temple. “My brother.”

He still didn’t understand what he meant but he didn’t want to ask.  Akashi was almost as scary as the spider monster--no, even scarier.  He felt like he was in a web again, with something deadlier.

“You’re a demon,” he said, working his mouth around the word.  Akashi was a demon.  He knew there were things beyond his understanding in the world but knowing that and seeing them sitting across from him drinking tea was something else.

He nodded.

“I’ll call you.”

“Like...with your mind?”

Akashi cocked his head to the side and squinted.

“No...with a phone.  Can I have your number?”

He passed a slim, red phone over to him and Furihata punched in his number.  This was surreal.  He was exchanging phone numbers with a demon--a  _ demon! _  He bit his lip and stirred his straw around.

“Um...one more thing.” He felt a blush heat his cheeks as he spoke. “The spider...thing…”

“Hanamiya,” Akashi supplied.

“Right, him.  Um...he said I was squishy.  Am I?”

Akashi looked surprised as if that was the last thing he was expecting to hear.

“I would say you’re a little chubby in the middle,” he said in that dignified voice of his. “But it suits you.”

It was perhaps a trick of the light but it looked like he was blushing as much as Furihata was.

\--

Kuroko could feel a coming storm.  The sky, the real sky, was clear but he could feel doom gathering in the corners of his consciousness.  He shuddered and turned in towards Kagami.  His boyfriend was fast asleep under the tent of his blanket.  Kuroko curled up next to him and stroked his hands down his arms and chest.  He didn’t want to wake him up.

He stroked his fingers on Kagami’s cold skin and smiled.  He was glad they found each other.  For ten years, he had been floating around graveyards and wakes, devouring corpses in front of frightened family members.  For ten years, he had almost forgotten his physical form.  To regain a sense of humanity, he had gone to college and there he was, Kagami Taiga.  His vampire boyfriend.

A sound at the window drew Kuroko away from the blankets.  He saw the cat perched on the windowsill and frowned.  He reached down to pull his underwear up on before he approached him.  He slipped out from the covers and went to the window.

“Aomine-kun,” he said.

It was easy to confuse him for a black cat but Kuroko knew that he was very adamant about being called a Russian Blue.  He opened the window and let him jump in.  He transformed and Kuroko immediately looked away.  He didn’t want to look at his face, didn’t want any old feelings to resurface.

“Tetsu…”

He reached for him and Kuroko turned away.  He looked at Kagami slumbering away.

“He’s here?” Aomine asked.

He pointed to the bed. “He’s sleeping.”

“In the afternoon?”

“Yes.”

Aomine rubbed the back of his neck and scowled.

“What is he?”

“None of your business.”

Kuroko must have answered so quickly that it surprised him.  Aomine blinked in confusion and he finally made himself look at him.  Aomine, of course, looked the same.  He still had his shorn, blue hair and was still lanky and loose-limbed.  There was a darkness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“Aomine-kun…”

He felt that old affection but it was like an open wound.  Still raw and painful after all this time.

“Tetsu.”

He reached a hand to stroke down his cheek and Kuroko closed his eyes for that moment, savoring the feeling of nostalgia.

“You’re so cold now,” he whispered.

“I’m dead.”

Kuroko opened his eyes and stepped back.  On the bed, Kagami let out a little snuffle and rolled over.

“You should leave,” he said. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to see you,” he said. “I miss you, Tetsu.”

Nostalgia was replaced with rage.  The wound was open and irritated, throbbing with pain.

“Get out,” he said icily. “Get out of my house.”

Aomine looked pained.  He reached out to him.

“Tetsu…”

“He said get out.”

Kuroko turned to see Kagami had been awoken.  He slept like the dead (no pun intended, of course) so that was a surprise.  He stood, holding Kuroko’s blanket in front of himself and he had his true face on, his vampiric one.  Aomine stared at him and he hissed.  Kuroko looked between them, his eyes large and his mouth set in a thin line.  This wasn’t good.

“Aomine-kun, please leave.  Now is not the time.”

Aomine tore his gaze away from Kagami and looked at him.

“Tetsu.”

“Please.”

Aomine sighed and turned back into a cat.  He leapt onto the sill and jumped out into the yard.  Kagami slammed the window down and let out a slight hiss as the sun hit his skin.  He drew the comforter over him like a cloak.  He peeked out and, under any other circumstance, Kuroko would have laughed.

“Who was that?” he asked.

“Aomine-kun.  My…” he wasn’t sure how to put it.  His relationship with Aomine was more than a little complicated. “...ex-boyfriend.”

“And he’s a weird...cat creature?”

“A bakeneko.” He cocked his head to the side. “Didn’t you learn about youkai when you were younger, Kagami-kun?”

“A little, maybe.  I honestly don’t remember too much about my life before I became a vampire.  I’ve always had a shitty memory, y’know?”

Kuroko laughed, really laughed.  He tucked himself up in Kagami’s blanket quote and tackled him onto the bed.

“Let’s forget about him,” he said, drawing his finger down his own collarbone.

Kagami licked his lips and smiled.

“Done.”

\--

Murasakibara never bothered himself with the affairs of others.  He never enraged Akashi like Kise or Aomine.  That was the important thing, really.  Keeping Akashi from being angry was a good enough goal in life.  He liked his bakery, this little spot for supernatural entities in the city.  He had that and he did what Akashi said--he kept in line.  Life was simple.

“Atsushi!”

At least, it had been.  Himuro was a wrench thrown into his life.  He came in almost nightly for his bun and he would smile.  He never remembered people’s orders because he didn’t care.  Himuro’s order was simple but he would already have it bagged before he walked in through the door.  Sometimes he wished he could slide it into a plate and have Himuro stay awhile but that was dangerous thinking.  Aomine had said that Kagami, the one who Kuroko dated, who was this one’s brother, wasn’t human but what did that mean about Himuro?  And what did that matter?

“Muro-chin,” he said and handed over his red bean mochi bun.

Himuro smiled and passed him the money.

“This is the best part about moving back to Japan,” he said with a smile.

“From where?”

“L.A.”

He dusted his hand on the front of the cartoon bear on his shirt and smiled.  Murasakibara almost found himself smiling back.  Akashi was very particular about these things.  That was why he punished Kise as he had.  That was why he was so upset when Kuroko disrupted everything.  He gave allowances to Midorima since he was a priest, was a master, but he mostly saw humans as playthings.  If Himuro  _ was _ in fact human.  And if he felt anything for him, which he didn’t.

Himuro waved as he exited and he felt a knife-sharp finger prod into his side.

“Methinks the oni doth protest too much.”

He let out a low growl and glared at Momoi who simply smiled in that mysterious, all-knowing way of hers.  He curled his lip.

“Are you using magic to read my mind?”

She sighed, her smile falling.

“Why do none of you know how my magic works?” she lamented. “No.  I saw how you looked at him as he was leaving.  You have a crush.  It’s finally happened.”

He made a “tch” noise and moved away from her.  He didn’t need anyone on the outside chiming in on his romantic prospects or lack thereof.

“Aka-chin--”

“It’s not his business,” she insisted. “It’s never been.  We just let him think that.”

He didn’t like the sound of that, the sound of disobeying Akashi.  Disobeying Akashi’s word had disastrous results.  That human boy Kise was so taken with was lying in a coma because of Kise’s disobedience.

“Sacchin…” he let out a low grumble.

She cocked her head to the side.  Then again, out of all of them, she was probably the only one Akashi feared.

“He’s not human,” she said. “We don’t know what he and his brother are but.  It’s not like Ki-chan.”

He looked away.  He had no way of knowing if Himuro even liked him back.  Or if he liked him at all.  Emotions were messy, annoying.

“Talk to him, Mukkun,” she said and put a hand on his arm. “What harm could it do?”


	6. Chapter 6

Himuro never feared the night.  Even before he was a vampire, he loved the night.  He would go out and feel the hot air of Los Angeles on his skin, feel the moisture soak into his flesh.  He loved smelling the late night smells of gasoline and mock orange.  Nightlife in L.A. invigorated him as well.  He used to party into the night.  After he was a vampire, he stayed with the crowds.  In the sixties, he would spent his nights in the canyons, partying with Jim Morrison.

The smells of Tokyo were different from L.A. but he still liked them.  He spread his arms and tipped his head back, savoring the night air.

“It’s the city I live in, the city of angels,” he sang to himself, smiling at how his voice echoed off of the buildings.

The streets were nearly empty.  Every now and then Himuro saw someone scurrying home from a club or bar but that was all.  These streets were his.  Very rarely did he go out without the intent to feed.  He could just enjoy the night for what it was.

“Hey, prettyboy.”

The words curled into his ears and Himuro snapped to attention.  He spun around and sniffed the air.  All vampires had enhanced senses but his were nowhere near his brothers.  Their kind tended to have one power that was greater than the others.  Himuro’s gift was a potent glamor but Kagami had senses that were better than any vampire’s he had ever known.

Regardless, it didn’t matter, because he had let the gang sneak up on him.  There were five men, around the age he appeared physically.  They moved on the sidewalk to form a semicircle around him.  Himuro flicked his eyes to each of their faces, sizing them up.  He could probably take them but if one had a weapon, they could get him in the heart or head and it would be all over.  Himuro had lived too long to die at the hands of a bunch of punks.

“That’s me,” he said, smiling. “How’s it hanging?”

“We were looking for some action,” one said.  He moved around Himuro’s shoulder and he followed him with his eyes. “And it looks like we found it.  You’re not a girl but you’re pretty enough.”

Himuro tipped his head to the side.

“Wow, with charm like that, I don’t know why you can’t get laid.”

One took a step forward and Himuro took a step to the side, hoping to get some coverage from the shadows.

“Come here,” another said.  He smiled sinisterly and crooked his finger. “You can make this easy.  You look easy.”

Himuro let out a hiss despite himself.  That was true enough.  He often teased his meals with sex before he killed them, at least.  Still, to have that thrown in his face by these men who had far less than savory intentions towards him was making his shoulders tense.

The first one, who had circled to his side, put a hand on his elbow.  Himuro turned and grabbed it.

“The last person who touched me without my permission is dead,” he hissed.

He twisted the man’s hand, grinning as he heard the bones crack in his wrist.  His face convulsed in pain and he yelled, the cry echoing off of the buildings.  He saw a couple of the others take a step back.

The first doubled over in pain, holding his wounded hand to his chest.  He looked up, face red and sweaty.

“Kill him!” he snarled.

Himuro let his face vamp out--a term he came up with that was later stolen to use in a movie, not that he was bitter--and they took another step back.  Even with only one eye showing, he knew his true face was intimidating.

“What are you waiting for?!” the first cried, not having seen his face yet.

One reached into his jacket, ostensibly for a weapon, but he never got the chance.  Before Himuro could lunge at him, an iron club came crashing down on his head.  His skull split and blood oozed down his face.  He fell like a sack of potatoes onto the sidewalk.  Himuro saw, looming behind them, the enormous form of the boy from the bakery.  He looked different, though.  In the dim light of the streetlamp, he could see that his skin was purple--a lighter shade than his hair--and two fangs poked up from his lower lip.  A horn rose up from his forehead, parting his bangs.

“Atsushi?” Himuro asked.

He swung his club into the next one, knocking him to the ground.  Despite himself, Himuro grinned the grin of wild bloodlust.  He turned to the first one and lunged for him.  He sank his fangs into his neck and tore his throat out.  He spun and jumped the next one.  Within minutes, the gang was lying dead on the sidewalk.  Himuro breathed out and let his face become human-appearing once again.  He stared down at the corpses of the men and sighed.  He wasn’t hungry tonight--he was trying to cut back on his feedings.  He took his phone out and sent Kuroko a mail.

**(you):** stop fucking my brother i have a 5 course meal for you

He looked up at Murasakibara.  He looked human again as well.  He smiled at him, hoping he still looked charming even though his face was coated in blood.

“You’re an oni,” he said, “aren’t you?”

He hesitated and then nodded.

“And you’re…”

“A vampire,” he finished.

“Vampire.” He seemed to be sounding out the word. “Are they common in Los Angeles?”

He remembered.  Himuro was surprised.

“Yes,” he said, “but my brother and I kept to ourselves.  Some form, like, gangs and stuff but we kept to ourselves.  Us and our Maker and then she left and it was just us.  I see the youkai community is tighter, though?”

Murasakibara shrugged and scratched the side of his head.

“Just us...in our group,” he said, “there are others.”

That was decidedly cryptic, he thought.  His phone vibrated.

**(Kuroko):** where?

He glanced at the street signs and sent it to him.  He slipped it back into his pocket and looked at Murasakibara.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked.

Murasakibara blushed, actually blushed.  It was cute.  A lot of him was cute, though, Himuro thought.  He found himself smiling again.

“I...well, Sacchin said she would watch the bakery so I could...catch you and…” He frowned at himself and sighed. “Ask you out.”

That was surprising.  Himuro wiped his hand over his mouth.

“Oh.  So, um, even though we just killed five men...do you still want to ask me out?”

“Maybe...if Muro-chin...wants me to ask him out.”

He looked away.

“He does--I do.”

Murasakibara glanced him and he saw a small smile flicker onto his face.

“Hello, Himuro-san.  Murasakibara-kun.”

Himuro almost jumped.  He turned and saw Kuroko looking even more ghostly than usual standing under the glow of the streetlamp.

“That was quick.”

“Your place is nearby.”

“You were at our place?  Why?”

Kuroko and Kagami usually went to Kuroko’s place to have sex.

“You weren’t there.” Kuroko gave him a meaningful look.

Himuro ignored it.  He was trying not to become Alex but he wasn’t going to welcome Kuroko with open arms.

“What happened here?” he asked.

“These men tried to attack Muro-chin,” Murasakibara said, “we disagreed with that.”

“Ah.” Kuroko paused and then added, “it’s good to see you again.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes, actually.”

This was someone else he had history with, Himuro thought.  That wasn’t terribly surprising.  He was at the café with that trio of people.

“It’s good to see you, Kuro-chin.” He reached out and ruffled Kuroko’s hair.

“Please stop that.  I’m hungry.”

“Hungry...oh.  Mido-chin said something about that.”

“Ah.  It.  May be a little jarring.”

Himuro was used to Kuroko’s real face but Murasakibara’s eyebrows rose up when he saw the needle-sharp teeth and bright red eyes.  Kuroko made quick work of the corpses and let out a little burp when he finished the last one.

“Thank you, Himuro-san.” He pursed his lips and added, “I worked up an appetite tonight.”

Himuro glowered at him.  He was doing that on purpose.  He tried not to let it bother him.  He had to date to plan, after all.

\--

Kise first met Momoi when she was a child.  He saw her playing in a stream with her pet cat.  He watched her for a moment and decided that it would be fun to get her lost in the woods.  He transformed himself into a child and asked her to play with him in the forest.  She had looked at him and said, “my mother said to never play with kitsune.”

Since then, she had been his best friend.  He had found out that her pet cat was a bakeneko as well as her familiar.  He was her brother as well.  Her mother was a powerful witch--more powerful than Momoi herself, which was something that frightened Kise--whose familiar was also a bakeneko.  They had been together for a long, long time and, even though Kise was older than them all, they had treated him like a son.  He had always wanted a family, after all.  Still, he would never have the closeness that Aomine and Momoi had.  He had always felt left out.

He thought he was close to that feeling with Kasamatsu but, again, it was taken away from him.  He knew he had no reason to bend to Akashi.  He was older and quite possibly more powerful than him but Akashi had a power over them that was uncanny.  He had put Kasamatsu into a coma, after all.  Kise hoped that one day soon, he would be suitably punished and Kasamatsu would wake up.  When he did, he would find a way to keep him from coming to harm again, just as he planned before Akashi intervened.  This Akashi, at least.  His brother was far more forgiving and Kise missed him.

“Excuse me, are you enrolled in this class?”

Kise came out of his reverie to find himself staring at Kuroko’s professor.  He fluttered his eyes.

“Hmm?”

“This class.  I haven’t seen you before.”

Kise felt the man taking bites out of him with his eyes.  He was used to the attention but it was still off-putting.  He had several centuries on this man but he had no way of knowing that.

“Yes.  My name is...Furihata,” he said, remembering the classmate he had seen speaking to Kuroko. “That’s me.”

At the sound of his name, a mousy-looking brunette boy turned his head sharply.  The professor smiled, nodded, and left him alone.  He exited the classroom since, apparently, class was over.  Kise had successfully zoned out for the entire lecture.

“Why did you say you’re me?”

Furihata shifted nervously from foot to foot on the side of Kise’s lecture chair.

“Um…”

He shifted his frightened gaze from side to side.

“Are you one of those...youkai?” he dropped his voice to a whisper on the last word.

The hairs on the back of Kise’s neck stood up.  This little human  _ knew _ about them?

“What?”

“Th-the other night, I was attack by this spider monster and one of you saved me and now I’m in a debt to a demon and I don’t know what to do and I was thinking maybe you’re friends with him and could do something but there’s two of them, I guess, in one body?  And the other one thinks I’m cute and what does that mean?”

Kise blinked at him.

“Oh.  That’s...a lot of information to take in during the first ten seconds of us knowing each other.  First of all: hi, I’m Kise.”

“Oh.  Right.  Hi.  Furihata...as you know.  Obviously.”

“Obviously.”

He filtered through the rest of Furihata’s word vomit, deciphering the words.

“Wait...did you say that you met a demon?”

Kise chewed his lower lip.

“Was this demon...short?  With red hair?”

“Yes!  You know him?”

“Very well.  We’re…” He smiled his ceramic smile. “Friends.”

Furihata licked his lips nervously and rolled them in.

“What do you think he wants?”

“Nothing good.”

Internally, Kise was seething.  Akashi thought this human was  _ cute? _  He put Kise’s boyfriend into a coma and had the nerve to think Furihata was  _ cute? _

“Are you okay, Kise-kun?” he asked. “Your eye is twitching.”

Kise plastered a bright, cheeky grin on his face.

“I’m great!”

\--

Midorima had a simple goal when it came to dealing with the local youkai: stay out of it.  He came from a long line of priests who followed that adage.  The only one he allowed to get close was the tanuki who always lived at their shrine.  He hadn’t meant to but Takao had wormed under his skin in a way that was at once annoying and endearing.  He wasn’t sure which, most times.  Right now, he was leaning on annoyance.  Takao lounged on his futon, his ringed eyes looking at him almost scandalously.

“Hello, Shin-chan,” he said in a purr. “Did you miss me?”

“Takao, honestly.”

He chose not to answer him fully.  For the past hour, he had been speaking nothing except the ensuing drama about Kuroko and Aomine and Kuroko’s mysterious boyfriend.  Midorima cared for these things none at all.  He was to take over his family shrine.  He was a priest.  He didn’t want to deal with a horny jikininki who couldn’t even enter their grounds.

Midorima sighed.  He wished life were simpler.  His life was relatively uncomplicated but he still dealt with the blowback of whatever mystical drama surrounded his friends.  His friends.  That was another issue.  He was supposed to  _ mind _ these creatures just as everyone in his family did.  They weren’t meant to become his  _ friends _ .  He wasn’t meant to have a wily tanuki in his  _ bedroom _ .  It was improper.  It was not allowed.  He frowned.

“Shin-chan...you’re going to get wrinkles,” Takao teased. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Takao’s eyes flashed.  His gaze was sharp, all-seeing.  He was a trickster and one his family took care of for generations.  It was going to be his turn and yet.  Yet, yet.  He shook his head.

“I’m going to bed, Takao.  Please leave my room.”

“You know, it’s not a violation.  You can marry.”

He snorted. “Not to a tanuki.”

“Not even if I shifted into a beautiful, blushing bride?”

“My family would disown me for corrupting you.”

That was the truest joke.  That their youngest son would corrupt the trickster who lived at their shrine and not the other way around.  Takao was wily and quick-witted.

“Fine, Shin-chan.  I’ll wait for you.  I have all the time in the world.”

He leaned in and pressed a feather soft kiss on his lips.  He exited the room, allowing his tail to swish out behind him, drawing attention to his backside as he left.  Midorima put his fingers to his lips and sighed.  Takao, he was sure, was going to be the death of him.

\--

Aomine was mad.  He had been thrashing about, throwing his power around nearly all night.  Momoi knew that he had met Kuroko’s boyfriend, the vampire.  Himuro, Murasakibara’s friend, was a vampire so it stood to reason that Kagami was as well.  The face Aomine described matched the one the oni had when he returned, mumbling about a planned date.

“Are you done?” she asked.

He was in his beast form, which was never good.  He was nearly impossible to reason with when he was like that.  She sighed and folded her arms.  She loved Aomine, really she did.  He was her familiar, her brother, but sometimes he was so melodramatic.  It was especially true when it came to Kuroko.  He was still in love with him, of course, which made matters worse.

He growled and Momoi was tempted to hex him.  Her magic and his magic probably wouldn’t mesh but the resulting explosion would probably knock  _ some _ sense into him.

“Dai-chan!” she said warningly. “Stop it now.”

She channeled energy into her hands and set her gaze.  He turned, his maw open and his tongue lolling out.  He was really gone.

“Dai-chan…”

She locked eyes with him and he stilled.  They stared at one another for a while until he began to shift back into a human.  Once he had, he let out a moan and flopped onto his back.

“I miss him,” he said, “and...he doesn’t miss me.”

He sounded so mournfully sad that Momoi knelt near him.  She stroked his face and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“I’m sorry, Dai-chan.”

Long ago, they had fought for Kuroko’s affections and Aomine had won.  Momoi had quickly gotten over her crush, if it had ever truly existed.  Looking back, she probably only liked Kuroko because he was kind and had always seen her as a girl without her having to say so.  Still, it hurt her to see her brother like this.  She didn’t want to try anything against Kagami, though.  She knew very little of the ways of vampires and didn’t want to jump in blind.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

She hoped that he would drop it.  She hoped that he would try to just become friends with Kuroko now that they knew he was alive again--sort of.  She hoped these things but she also knew her brother and knew that this wouldn’t be so.

“I’m going to get him back.”

That was what she knew he would say and it worried her.

\--

Kagami felt it when he was with Kuroko.  They sat together in an all-night fast food stand, eating together.  Kuroko was up against him, resting his head on his shoulder.  Kagami had his arm around him and felt happy.  For once in both of his lives, he felt truly happy.  He liked Kuroko--was maybe on the way to loving him--and his relationship with Himuro was getting less codependent.  He knew, of course, that something had to come along and ruin it.  He felt the tingle in his head as Kuroko drank his milkshake and talked about one of their classmates.

He pressed his free hand to his temple and frowned.

“Kagami-kun?”

His phone vibrated in his pocket.  He fished it out and opened the text.

**(Tatsuya):** did you feel it?

He texted back the affirmative.  Kuroko placed a cold hand on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and reached for his burger. “Nothing.”

Kuroko wasn’t convinced.  Even so, he watched Kagami chew, waited for him to finish.

“What is it?” he asked.

His blue eyes were wide but his brows were drawn in.  A drop of milkshake settled on his lower lip.  Kagami didn’t want to trouble him but trouble would find them anyway.  He sighed.

“...My Maker,” he said. “She just called out to me and Tatsuya.”

“Is she here?  In Japan?”

“I think she might be.”

He stood, dropping his arm from Kuroko.

“I’m sorry.  I can’t ignore it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t stay.  I have to go to her.”

Kuroko took his hand and pulled him down.

“No.  Stay.”

“I can’t,” he said. “Literally.  If she calls me, I go to her.  I can’t stop myself from doing it.”

As he said it, he felt his feet begin to move forward.  Kuroko stared after him as he left, a look of betrayal on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [i commissioned art of momoi](https://twitter.com/uiromilk/status/708424441609461760) from this fic because i'm super self-indulgent! but it's so pretty!!


	7. Chapter 7

Kuroko knew that getting involved with another supernatural entity was a bad idea.  Even if he himself was one now, it couldn’t possibly end well.  Kagami was a vampire, too, with rules that Kuroko didn’t even fully understand.  This Maker nonsense...but it wasn’t nonsense, he told himself.  Not to him.  It was that thinking that isolated Aomine when they were together.  That thinking that led to his death and his curse.  He couldn’t let himself fall into such selfish thinking.

Still, a dark part of him was mad, so mad.  He wanted Kagami here.  He stared reproachfully at his tray of wrapped burgers.  Kagami never left food uneaten.  Kuroko grabbed one and unwrapped it.  He bit into the burger, pulling the pickle in it out with his teeth and chewing.  Kagami always put his pickles to the side and, when they left, he would wrap them in a napkin to take with him.  Kuroko always thought it was cute, if a little weird.  Now he chewed with gusto and swallowed the briny food.  He didn’t know what he was doing or why but he was hurt.

Kagami couldn’t have said more?  He couldn’t have told him what was really going on with his Maker of his?  He threw the burger back onto the tray and slumped forward to rest his forehead in his arms.  He was left behind again.  Just as Aomine would avoid him when Akashi put fear into him.  Aomine…

A darker part of his mind brought back the memories of the other day.  Aomine’s hand cupping his face just as it used to.  The way his sleepy, vaguely grumpy gaze would kick up into warm fondness, just for him.  Kuroko’s insides turned.  He couldn’t do that.  Aomine had betrayed him, back then, and Kagami was still his.  Probably.  He rubbed his temples.  This was frustrating and confusing.  He wanted a friend but he had none.  The other youkai weren’t his friends, not anymore, despite Kise hanging all over him in class.  He couldn’t turn to them about this.  Any other friends he had had (and there had never been many) thought he was dead, just as his parents did.

Kuroko stared at the remaining burgers and put them in his school bag.  He hoped that Kagami would be back tonight and he could have them, maybe, and Kuroko wouldn’t have to throw them out.

He exited the restaurant and trudged towards his cold, empty house.  Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he paused.  Kuroko turned and saw nothing.  Even so, he kept his guard up as he walked.  He reached into his pocket to grab his phone even though he had no one to call if danger came to him.  He kept walking until he heard a little yip.  This time, from the shadows, came a dog.  It was a puppy, really, and Kuroko knew this dog--or at least knew of it.

“You’re far from a mountain pass, aren’t you?” he asked.

He dropped to one knee and held his hand out.  The dog bypassed it and went to sniff his bag.  Kuroko felt a pang of sadness.  The dog had only followed him because of the smell of burgers.  Perhaps sensing this, the dog turned and licked his hand.  Kuroko chanced a smile.  He shouldn’t trust his dog--he knew its kind--but it seemed to be sweet.

“This is cow meat,” he said, “not human.”

The dog looked at him with strangely familiar blue eyes.  He...looked like him, Kuroko realized.

“But I’m not human,” he said as if the dog wouldn’t already be able to tell.

He got to his feet and the dog followed him.  He looked back and saw that he was keeping pace with him, his little pink tongue hanging out of his mouth.  The dog was cute, he thought, and seemed to like him and.  He needed a friend and there one was, even if it was an apparently lost okuri inu.

\--

Alex, of course, looked the same.  She glared at them through her pink-framed glasses and twisted her blond hair angrily around her finger before letting go and letting the strands bob in a loose corkscrew.  Kagami shivered.  She had always given the creeps even if he had the utmost loyalty to her.  Next to him, Himuro stood straight-backed and rigid, his jaw set.  Right now, Alex was sitting on their couch and they stood in front of her like chastised children.

“My, my,” she purred, “it’s so strange that I come back home and my boys are gone.  Not only that, they’ve flown all the way the fuck to Japan.  Which is funny because I don’t remember giving you permission to do that.”

“You’ve been gone for almost thirty years,” Himuro said, “sorry that we got tired of waiting for you.”

He was always bolder with Alex than Kagami was.  She got up, walked forward and grabbed each of their faces in her hands.  She cupped their chins and used her fingers to press their cheeks together.

“You shouldn’t have left L.A.,” she growled. “That was my territory.  Mine.  You were supposed to watch it.”

Kagami tried to move his mouth enough to speak but her hold was incredibly tight.

“Rival gangs are moving in,” she continued, “taking my turf, my prey-- _ your _ prey.”

That confused him.  In all the time he had been a vampire, he very rarely saw another of his kind other than Himuro.  He knew many vampires were social, forming packs or gangs, but it was always just the two of them after Alex left.  Was that because other vampires were afraid to enter their territory?  He hadn’t even known they’d  _ had _ territory.  They went all over the city without a problem.  Were other vampires afraid of Alex?  He knew he was and she couldn’t hurt him, not really.  A Maker could not harm a vampire they had turned or else they would feel the pain doubly upon themselves.  Even now, she was cringing from her own hold on their faces.

She let up and let out a sigh.  She collected herself and stood up straight, smiling.

“Let’s start again,” she said, “hello, my boys.  It’s been a while.”

Kagami grew uneasy.  A happy Alex was even scarier than an angry one.  She circled them, roving her eyes over them both.

“You’re so big, Taiga,” she said with a smirk. “My big, broad littlest son.”

She put her arms around his waist and Kagami fought back a shudder.  Alex turned to Himuro and something unspoken passed between them.  She always treated Kagami like a child but her relationship with Himuro was always thinly guised antagonism.

“Tatsuya, as beautiful as ever.” Alex went to hug him but then poked him in the stomach. “Oh, what’s this?”

There was nothing there but Kagami saw Himuro twitch anyway.  He knew that he had struggled with an eating disorder before he had been turned and Alex knew how to exploit him.

“Pack your bags,” she said sternly. “We’re going home.”

Kagami froze.  He didn’t want to leave.  He didn’t want to go back to L.A.  There was no Kuroko in L.A.  He would pass his days in fits of sleep and spend his nights at sweaty clubs, looking for prey with his brother.

“We can’t just up and leave,” Himuro said. “Taiga’s enrolled at the local college and I’m a bartender.  We can’t just--people will be suspicious.”

“Who cares?”

Himuro bit his lip and let out an uneasy sigh.

“Give us a week to get everything in order,” he said, “and then we’ll go back.”

Alex stared at him for a while and then shrugged. “Fine.  You have a week.”

Shaking her head, she walked from their living room into one of the spare bedrooms of their apartment.

“The things I do for you boys, honestly.”

The moment she was gone, Kagami turned to grab his brother’s arm.

“I don’t want to go back,” he said in an urgent whisper, “I like it here.  I have a boyfriend.”

“I don’t either,” he said back. “I have a  _ date _ in a few days.”

“Really?  With who?” he asked, suddenly distracted.

“None of your business.  Look.  We have a week to figure it out.  But I’m not going back.  We might have to…”

They had talked about this many times, making Alex feel the true death.  He didn’t know how it would work because they were only fifty, sixty years old in terms of being vampires.  Alex was over two  _ centuries _ old.  She was far more powerful than they were and, plus, she could invoke their bond and stop them at any time.

“Don’t worry, Taiga.  We’ll figure it out.” He was smiling but Kagami could see through it.

\--

Kuroko decided to skip class that night.  He was only going through the motions of being a college student.  What he learned would never impact him in any way.  Ghosts couldn’t hold down jobs, after all.  He lay in bed and clutched the pillow to his chest.  Hunger shuddered through him.  He was so used to it, now, feeding almost every night on multiple bodies, that his body began to crave it.  He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut to try and shut it out.  He heard a knock on the door but didn’t get up.  He curled into himself further and shut his eyes.

The dog from before growled at the door.  Kuroko put aside the pillow and shushed him as he padded towards the door.  He opened it and saw Kagami standing on his stoop.

“Kagami-kun…”

“Invite me in?”

He nodded. “Come in.”

He stepped aside and allowed him entry.  Kagami opened his mouth to speak but then froze, half in and half out of his shoes.  With a shaking figure, he pointed towards the dog.

“W-what’s that?”

“Okuri inu,” Kuroko said. “I found him on my way home from Maji.  I...was feeling alone.”

“Oh.” He took in a shaky breath and said, “sorry.  I’m afraid of dogs.  When I was little, one attacked me.  It’s one of the few memories I have when I was a human.”

He eyed the dog warily as he moved around the living room.  The dog seemed to sense it and walked into the kitchen.  Kagami settled down on the couch and rested his hands on his knees.  Kuroko sat next to him and put a hand gently on his arm.

“My Maker called to me,” he said. “She wants us to go back to Los Angeles.”

His tone had a note of resignation.  Kuroko felt his heart drop.  No, he was foolish to try and find love again.  He drew his hand back and turned away.

“I don’t want to,” he continued.  Kuroko closed his eyes, not wanting to look at him.

“But you are.”

“...Tatsuya is trying to find a way out of it.  We have a week to come up with something.”

A week.  At the end of the week, Kagami would leave him.  He didn’t sound like he had much hope in Himuro coming up with something.

“Kuroko...will you look at me?”

He opened his eyes and saw the hurt look on his face.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he said. “I feel like...I’m starting to really fall for you and...I don’t want to lose this.”

He held his hand out and Kuroko placed his in it.  He stared at the difference because it was easier than looking at his face.  Kagami’s hand was broad and thick-veined with long fingers.  His own looked almost delicate in comparison.

“What are you going to do?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh, “but I’m not going down without a fight.  I’ll tell you that.”

Kuroko breathed out and leaned into him.  He tilted his face towards him and Kagami kissed him.  He held his face in his hands and moved in to deepen it.  He let Kagami sink into his mouth, his tongue flicking on the roof of his mouth.  He took his own hands and stroked them down his sides.  As they kissed, they moved more and more horizontally on the couch.  Kagami pulled himself on top of him and looked down at Kuroko, his red gaze smoldering.

“Is this okay?”

Kuroko shifted beneath him and nodded. “Yes.”

He kissed him again and his hand slipped down to cup Kuroko’s crotch.  He jerked his hips into his hand as he continued to kiss him.  He and Kagami had been having sex since they first got together but this was different, somehow.

“Kagami-kun,” he whispered.

“Taiga,” he said between kisses, “call me Taiga.”

Kuroko felt his face flush.  Even Aomine never said to call him by his first name.  He wrapped his arms around Kagami’s neck and rubbed his groin into his palm.

“Hey, is this better?”

Kagami jerked off of him at the unfamiliar voice.  Kuroko moved up as he did and glanced over the back of the couch.  Coming out of the kitchen was a boy who looked to be their age.  His hair was reddish brown and he had leftover burgers in each hand.

“Who are you?” Kagami asked.

“I thought if I wasn’t a dog, it would be easier for you,” he explained with a smile.  He took a big bite of burger.

Kuroko furrowed his brow.  Okuri inu weren’t shapeshifters, as far as he knew, but he also wasn’t an expert on these things.

“Who are you?” Kagami repeated.

“Oh--Ogiwara Shigehiro.” He smiled again even though his cheeks were stuffed full.  He swallowed and let out a loud burp. “Call me Shige.”

“Shige,” Kuroko repeated.

He nodded. “Yeah.  Thanks for letting me stay here.”

“Uh.”

He  _ had _ let him in.  Kuroko bit his lip and glanced at Kagami whose brow was furrowed.

“Sure.  Why not?  Your ex-boyfriend’s a cat and now your new roommate’s a dog.  Sure.  Fine.”

Shige sniffed the air near Kagami and sighed.

“You’re not human either.  I’m getting a little hungry and those burgers can only do so much.” He patted his stomach and sighed. “I got lost and there’s a lot fewer wayward travelers in the city, y’know?”

“And he eats people too.” Kagami shook his head. “You two should get along.”

Kuroko pursed his lips.

“I eat corpses.  Okuri inu eat what they kill.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Kagami laughed and Kuroko couldn’t help but smile.  It was the happiest he had looked since he had come in.  He could almost forget that he was leaving soon.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone.  I’m going to go hunt.” Shige smiled, revealing his sharp teeth. “See you later, bud.”

He waved and left.  Kuroko stared at the door for a moment.

“I really thought he was a dog.”

“Well, he’s not.  Anyway...he  _ did _ leave us alone…”

Kuroko smiled.

“That he did.”

\--

For the second time in a week, Furihata found himself sitting in a restaurant across from a demon.  He was surprised that Akashi’s request for a favor was meeting him for dinner.  He thought he would have to kill someone for him or something.  The Akashi in front of him looked different.  For one, both of his eyes were red and they weren’t open so intensely wide.

“Thank you for meeting me,” he said, “my brother was upset and I asked to use the favor for this.”

Brother...this was a different Akashi, then.  Furihata nodded and looked down at the table.  He saw Akashi’s hands were on the table and he was awkwardly tugging on his fingers.  He was nervous.

“So...you’re a demon too?” he asked and then winced.  That was probably not a good question to ask.

“Yes,” he said politely. “My brother and I inhabit the same body.”

“Oh...oh!”

That explained their conversation at the café.  Furihata reached for his water cup and gulped some down.

“I’m the dominant brother,” he continued, “but he steps in to protect me when things get difficult.  It’s...let’s not talk about him.”

He shook his head and smiled.  It wasn’t an odd smile, Furihata thought, not the one from earlier.  It wasn’t a predator’s smile.  This one was kind of shy and it made him look cute.  Cute.  He thought a demon was cute.  This was weird.  Even weirder than that strange blond boy from his biology class taking him shopping the other day so he could grill him about Akashi.

“Alright.”

They talked about television and about what Furihata studied and he almost could forget that he was meeting with the demon who saved him from a spider monster.  He never really had many crushes.  A few girls here and there, a few guys, but that was all.  He felt...strange, fluttering feelings for Akashi.  The fact that he was paying for dinner helped as well.

“I know you said not to speak to him but...what’s the difference between you?” he asked. “Like what happens when one of you fronts?”

Akashi placed his chopsticks down and shrugged.

“Well, whatever magic the other had been using disappears.  Like if I had used magic to keep my plants alive without watering them, when he fronted, they would all wilt.”

That was interesting, Furihata thought.

“Sorry for bringing it up,” he said.

“It’s fine.  You seem more comfortable.  Thank you for meeting me, Furihata-kun.”

He stood and bowed.  Furihata slid out from his chair and stumbled as he did likewise.

“Furihata-kun?”

“Yes.”

Akashi rolled his lips in and looked to the side.

“You have no obligation to say yes and I know that this was simply because of the favor but there’s a festival at a local shrine next weekend and I was wondering if you would want to come with me.”

He should say no.  Furihata was terrified of his brother and still was.  This Akashi was not that Akashi, though, and this Akashi was.  Nice.  He instead found himself nodding and asking where it was.  As he got on the train home, he thought that the favor wasn’t too bad after all.  Even so, Furihata couldn’t help but wonder what else was in store for him now that he had said yes to another date.

\--

In hospital room 217 at Tokyo University Hospital, there was a stirring.  The nurse that had been tending him noticed it first.  A flicker on his monitors and a brow furrowing.  She gasped and ran from the room to fetch a doctor.  When she was gone, he awoke fully.  He stared at the IV’s in his hands and lifted the sheet to see the catheter sticking out of him.  He worked his lips over his teeth but his voice didn’t come to him yet.  He blinked his eyes blearily and tried to remember how he got here or why.  The sheets were far cleaner than his, at least, and everything was so bright.

He swallowed against a dry throat and turned to his side.  He stared at the bed rail and deduced that it was a hospital.  He was in the hospital.  Reaching over, he pressed a call button.  The doctor came immediately but he had had no way of knowing that the nurse had gone to get him.  He looked at him with a look of shock and he wondered why that was.  Memories slowly came back.  Coming home to find the boy in his house.  The one who told him that he had to punish…

“Do you know who you are?” the doctor asked.

He swallowed again and said in a dry, rasping voice, “Kasamatsu Yukio.”


	8. Chapter 8

Himuro couldn’t remember the last time he was on a proper date.  Usually he hooked up with men in bars and, depending on their performances, he would decide whether or not he would feed on them afterwards.  He hadn’t had a proper date since John Phillips had tried to pick him up back in the sixties on the seventy-first hour of an acid trip.  He honestly forgot what someone did on an actual date.

He wasn’t sure if this could be considered a real date, though.  Murasakibara had wanted to go to a dessert buffet and now a veritable fleet of plates stood between them.  Himuro drank something fruit-flavored decorated with whipped cream and gummied fruit.  He stirred his straw in it, not really having any desire to drink it.  He had fed earlier that night so he would have no temptation tonight.  He had never fed on anything supernatural and had no idea if he would even like the taste of oni blood.

Murasakibara had frosting on the tip of his nose and he looked downright adorable.  Himuro knew he was in danger.  Crushes were not a thing he let himself get.  Humans were fleeting and other vampires were cliquey.  Murasakibara was neither and yet...yet he was leaving if he didn’t find a way to deal with Alex.

“Muro-chin is distracted.”

“A little,” he admitted, “Sorry--some stuff has come up.  But I’m glad we’re doing this.”

“Me too.”

Murasakibara made a fair approximation of a smile and Himuro gave one back.  He did like the fact that he had a similar problem when it came to showing facial expressions.  Kagami always teased him about having a poker face.

“So there is no other family that works in that bakery with you?” he asked slyly.

Murasakibara shook his head.

“No.  They live in the mountains.” He scratched his head and added, “I’m the youngest.”

Himuro pictured a group of similarly-sized purple oni and almost laughed.  He leaned over the table and instead watch Murasakibara eat.  It was impressive how quickly he moved through the plates.  His mouth was quite skilled.  Himuro smiled inwardly.  He had to illusions about how this night would end.  He always moved fast.  Kagami--that he moved as quickly as he did with Kuroko--that was surprising.  Himuro, though, always went for what he wanted and what he wanted right now was Murasakibara on top of him.

“When you’re done, let’s get out of here,” he said. “I live nearby.”

Purple eyes stared into his own impassively but then a slow grin formed on his face as he caught his hint.

“Alright.”

\--

The apartment was small but everything was small to Murasakibara.  He followed Himuro through the living room and watched him tiptoe past a closed door.  He seemed skittish as he passed it so Murasakibara took care to be quiet as well.  He had seen him in the alley so if something scared him, he figured that it was something to be scared of.

His room was in the corner of the apartment.  It had very little light.  He stood in the doorway and watched Himuro light candles and incense.  The shadows from the flickering flames light up his face in supernatural beauty.  With the soft glow of the orange light, Murasakibara could make out the black and white photos on his walls.  They were of American actors and actresses, though he didn’t know any of their names.

“They’re all movie stars who died in bizarre ways,” he said. “Even before I was turned, I was into the macabre.”

He smiled slow and sensual.  Himuro drew his fingers over a picture of a handsome man squinting up at the camera. “James Dean.”

He pointed to the others and said, “Marilyn Monroe” and “Jayne Mansfield” and “Rudolph Valentino.”  Murasakibara wondered how they died and how that fascinated him.  Himuro turned and sat on the bed.  It was adorned with a quilted blanket made of lavender-colored silk.

“This is my coffin blanket,” he said and ran his hand over the smooth material. “I don’t need a coffin...not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Not for another century.”

Himuro sat on the bed and spread his legs.  He let his hand dangle inside his thigh and smiled.

“Come here.”

Murasakibara never got any action.  Not really.  When you were friends with a beautiful kitsune who charmed politicians and celebrities alike, it was hard to compare.  Now there was a beautiful boy with pearly fangs on a bed, calling for him.  As the flames flickering, they cast shadows on his face.  In each wiggle of the candle wick, he could see his face switch between its human mask and the true, vampiric face.  He wondered if this was a ruse to get him, to feed on his blood, but it was too late for that.  If he tried, well, he always had his club.

He went to the bed and Himuro pulled him down to kiss him.  His lips tasted a little like the fruit of his drink and blood.  Himuro probably always tasted like blood, he thought.  He told him that he fed frequently.

He pulled him onto the bed and he was careful not to drop his full weight on him.

“I’m not made of glass,” he whispered throatily in his ear. “It’s alright.”

He lowered himself down more so their chests were touching.  Even though their clothes were still on, he felt undressed.  Beneath him, Himuro was making this panting little mewls and kept grinding their crotches together.  Murasakibara’s legs were off the bed and the silk was hot under his hand but still he kissed him.

“Which do you prefer?” Himuro asked.

“Hmm?”

Murasakibara looked down at him.  His hair was thrown back and he could see both of his eyes.  They looked almost back in the gloom, his pupils blown.  His lips were parted and wet.

“Top or bottom?” he asked, “I’ll do both.”

“Bottom,” he answered immediately.

Himuro smiled and licked his lips.

“Done and done, Atsushi.”

He pulled him down and began kissing him again.

\--

Kasamatsu stared at himself in the mirror.  He touched his face and drew his hand down to his neck, to his collarbone.  He was real.  He had to remind himself that he was real and alive.  Now fully awake, he remembered that day.  He remembered coming home to find a petite redhead on his couch, sipping tea and looking at him with two different colored eyes.

“Pleased to meet you,” he had said, “hope you guess my name.”

Kasamatsu remembered puzzling at the song reference before he put his cup down and said that he was here to punish Kise for his disobedience.  After he said that, the world went black.  And now he was awake again.  He stared at his reflection.  His hair was longer and at an awkward mid-length where it almost fell over his forehead and ears but not quite.

He blinked at his reflection before he remembered: Kise!

An image of him appeared strongly in his mind’s eye.  Kise holding his hands and kissing him.  Meeting him the first time at that idol’s music video.  Kise was a model on the shoot and Kasamatsu was playing guitar on the backing track.  The last time he had seen him, Kise had told him he had a present for him.  “Something to keep you safe,” he’d said.  Kasamatsu hadn’t known what he meant but he figured it had something to do with that redhead.

He had been in that coma for eight weeks.  Eight weeks.  He leaned down and turned the tap of his sink on.  The water hissed as it shot out before resuming its normal flow.  His parents had paid his utilities and rent in addition to his hospital bills.  He didn’t know how to repay them.  They had come to the hospital with his brothers before he was cleared to go home.  Kise...Kise hadn’t come.  Maybe he wasn’t allowed to at the words of that tiny, frightening redhead.

Still, it hurt.  He had loved Kise.  He turned the water off and wiped his face with a towel.  As he did, more memories came of his time with Kise.  Lying in his bed, tangled in his sheets.  “I’ve never felt this way,” he’d whispered. “Ever.”

Kasamatsu hadn’t found that that impressive.  Kise was younger than him--he had less chances for love.  Now...now he wasn’t sure.  That boy in his apartment was clearly something supernatural and did that mean that Kise was, too?  He rubbed his temples with the towel before setting it down.  He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.  Then again, he could probably give himself a break.  He had just woken up from a coma after all.

He took a step back and lifted his shirt.  He had lost weight.  His skin looked like it didn’t fit right.  He flexed his arm and could barely see the bicep swell in his sleeve.  He had been buff before--Kise had called him his “musclechub,” in fact--but he looked...gaunt.

A knock came at his apartment door and Kasamatsu stiffened.  He warily walked towards the door, afraid that that redhead would be on the other side.  He peered through the peephole and saw nothing.  Licking his lips, he took in a deep breath and opened it.

Kise stood on the other side.  His eyes were wide and already filling with tears.

“Kasamatsucchi,” he whispered.

“Kise.”

His heart began to beat faster just looking at him.  Kise was as beautiful as he remembered.  He was dressed in a cardigan with a thin scarf topped with a straw hat.  He looked like he was crying.

“I went to the hospital and your room was...I thought...but--” Kise buried his face in his hands and began to cry.

Kasamatsu watched him and willed himself to move.  It was like his brain hadn’t yet fully woken up.  Kise...Kise had a lot of secrets from him but Kise was also the one he loved.  He put his arms around him and brought him down so he could rest his head in his chest.  His hat fell off and Kasamatsu could smell the sweet, flowery smell of his shampoo.

“I’m so sorry,” he said through his tears. “I never thought he’d...”

Kise turned his face up to him and Kasamatsu found himself wiping away his tears with the tips of his fingers.  He ushered Kise fully into his apartment and closed the door.

“Kise…” he murmured.

Kise balled his hands into his shirt and kept crying.  Kasamatsu stroked his back and savored the feeling in holding him again.

“I thought you’d never wake up.”

He got Kise to the couch and sat him down.  He sat next to him and waited for him to quiet.  Whenever Kise cried--which was often enough--he never made much sense.  He fanned his face to try and stop his tears.

Finally, he seemed to calm down enough to for the tears to stop flowing.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

“Kise, you didn’t--”

“I disobeyed Akashicchi after he told me to stop seeing you and he did that to you to punish me…”

Kasamatsu shook his head.  He didn’t blame Kise--it would be foolish to.  It was this Akashi kid’s fault.  What kind of micromanaging, hex-casting freak was he?

“I have so much to tell you,” he said, “but first I need to give you this.”

He presented Kasamatsu with an orb on the end of a leather string.

“A necklace?”

“It’s my treasure,” he said, “put it on and it’ll protect you from this happening again.”

More than a little confused, he put the necklace on nonetheless.  The orb was somehow both cool and warm against his shirt.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Who’s...Akashi?”

He figured it was Akashi, anyway, taking the “cchi” off.

“He’s my friend...sort of.  He’s a demon.”

“Like a literal…?”

Kise nodded.  A literal demon.  Kise was friends with a  _ literal demon _ .

“Why did he put me in a coma?”

“To punish me.  Youkai aren’t supposed to be with humans.” He sighed. “About a decade ago, Aominecchi fell in love with a human and he wanted us to go beyond our little, hidden community.  He wanted us to be more open to people.  And...he died.”

“Youkai...you’re...Kise, what  _ are _ you?”

He looked down and his long lashes cast a shadow on the crest of his cheekbones and it took all of Kasamatsu’s willpower not to kiss him right there.

“I’m a kitsune,” he said. “And I’m seven hundred years old.”

Kasamatsu was very close to losing consciousness again from shock.

“You…” He scratched his head and tried to think of something to say.  His shock had left his mind blank. “I guess you aren’t younger than me, then.”

“Kasamatsucchi!”

He hit him playfully.

“Sorry--it’s.  A lot to take in.”

“I understand,” he said, “if you want me to go.  I lied to you about what I was and got you put into a coma.”

“You didn’t.  And...you said this thing will protect me, right?”

Kise looked at the necklace and nodded.

“Yeah.”

“So...look.  It’s a lot.  I’ll deal with it.” He stroked Kise’s bangs away from his red, sweaty face.

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Really.  Now…” Kasamatsu bit his lip.  He was never good at flirting but he was going to try. “We have two months we need to catch up on.”

\--

Kagami threw his head back so hard he almost brained himself on the back of Kuroko’s couch.  He gasped loudly and arched his back.  Kuroko’s hair brushed against his abdomen as he moved his head up and down on Kagami.  His fangs slipped out and he bit down on his lip so hard, he tasted his own blood.  It flowed into his mouth and, combined with Kuroko’s ministrations, was bringing him close to the edge.  He could feel himself teetering, so close…

“Hey, you guys want something?”

Kuroko’s mouth left him and Kagami let out a string of curses in English.  He turned his head as much as he could to see Shige standing in the doorway.  As usual, he was naked and eating some kind of raw meat.

“Why don’t you ever wear clothes?” he asked angrily.

“Well, my normal form freaks you out, so I stay in my human one but nothing here fits me.  All of Kuroko’s clothes are too small.”

“Shige, have you been trying on my clothes?” Kuroko placed his hands on Kagami’s knees and cocked his head to the side.

“Um…”

“That explains the dog hair in them.” He put his hand to his chin.

Kagami let out an aggravated sigh.

“When did my life get this weird?” He lamented.

“Kagami-kun, you’re a vampire.  Your life wasn’t normal before.”

He shook his head.

“Yeah but I was used to that life.”

Kagami groaned and reached down to pull up his underwear.  Kuroko had already plopped onto the couch next to him and was dialing a number on his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m calling Kise-kun to see if he wants to take Shige shopping.  He likes fashion and I like Shige not being naked in my home.”

“I’m sorry, Kuroko.”

He looked truly chagrined so Kagami couldn’t really stay mad at him.  Sure, he was a little irritated that he interrupted his and Kuroko’s private time but he was cute in his human form, at least.

“Kurokocchi!” Kise sounded breathless on the other line. “Hey--ah!”

He let out a giggle and Kagami had a feeling that Kuroko was going to regret putting him on speaker.

“Kise-kun, can you take my friend shopping?  He’s...new to the city and needs new clothes.”

“Mmm--sure!  I--Kasa--aah!”

Kise disconnected the call and Kuroko stared at the scene before he sighed despondently.

“I’m surprised he even answered the phone,” Kagami said.

“I’m not.”


	9. Chapter 9

Time was ticking down.  Kagami put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.  He had four days until Alex made them leave and if Himuro had any plans for how they would be able to stay in Tokyo.

“Kagami-kun?”

He looked up to see Kuroko had come back into his bedroom.  He found himself spending almost all of his time at Kuroko’s--trying to save up the time until he left.

“I thought I told you to call me Taiga,” he said, sitting up fully.

“Sorry.” He probably would have blushed if he had any blood and it made Kagami laugh.

“Anyway, what’s up?”

Kuroko came around and sat on the bed.  Gently, he brushed his fingers through Kagami’s hair and he closed his eyes.

“I like that you don’t purr,” Kuroko said quietly.

“Hmm?” Kagami opened his eyes halfway.

“Nothing.” Kuroko’s hand stilled for a moment and he knew that it meant there was something he wanted to say. “The local shrine has a festival in a few days.  They take down wards so all spirits and youkai can come...would you like to go?”

He frowned. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“No one would mess with the Midorima family so no.”

“Oh.  Then sure.”

Kagami had never actually been to a festival or if he had in his previous life, he didn’t remember.  He had been to street fairs and parties in L.A. but he had a feeling that wasn’t the same.

“It might be our last day,” Kuroko said quietly. “So I wanted to do...something.”

Kagami leaned in to kiss him.

“What if you come with us?”

He shook his head. “I can’t.  I...don’t want to leave the city, Kagami-kun.  And I don’t think I can.”

“You don’t think you can?”

“Yes...I think my spirit is bound to Tokyo.” He lowered his eyes. “I just...feel it.”

Kagami understood those feelings.  It was probably like when Alex called to him and Himuro.  He reached out and stroked his face.  Kuroko turned in to nuzzle his hand, his eyes slipping closed.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “And, again, you can call me Taiga.”

“Sorry, Kagami-kun.”

He was certain that he was just doing that to annoy him.

\--

Momoi glanced at the upcoming stop and got to her feet.  This was difficult since Aomine was draped over her, fast asleep.  Part of her wished that she had thought to put him in a cat carrier but that was just needlessly mean.  Nudging him awake with her shoulder also proved difficult since she held a box of pastries from Murasakibara’s bakery.

“Dai-chan,” she said into his ear. “We’re almost there.”

He mumbled and buried his face into the slope of her neck. “Mm...Tetsu…”

She rolled her eyes.  Sometimes he was too much.

“Dai-chan!”

He finally stirred, lazily opening his eyes and slicking his tongue over his lips.

“What?” he asked irritably.

“It’s almost our stop.”

“Oh.”

Aomine drew himself off of her shoulder and stretched languidly.  Some girls a few seats over tittered into their hands as they watched him.  They were a sizeable group and those that weren’t ogling Aomine were shooting her jealous looks.  She rolled her eyes once more.  It wasn’t the girls’ fault that they couldn’t tell they were siblings just by looking at them and, true, she and Aomine shared no actual blood but, either way, she was sick of years and years of people thinking he was her lover.  It was kind of gross.

The train pulled into the station and they left the girls behind.  Aomine didn’t even give them a cursory look of notice despite the fact that Momoi saw that at least two of the girls had chests that would normally get him excited.  He was still so fixated on Kuroko that it was beginning to worry her.  Almost every day, he brought up the festival as the location for his grand plan of getting him back.

Momoi, meanwhile, didn’t want to borrow trouble from vampires.  Kagami had to have a Maker and she knew that Makers often had a protective, parental role over those they had turned.  Aomine angering him could have worse repercussions and she felt like she didn’t have to remind him why that was a bad idea.  Beyond that, she had little knowledge of vampires except what she saw in movies and books and she had no idea how accurate that was.

“Don’t talk about Tetsu-kun here,” she said. “You’ll just worry them.”

Aomine pulled a face but said nothing.  The walk from the station wasn’t far.  Long ago, they had lived in the mountains near Kanegawa but since Momoi and Aomine had relocated to Tokyo so too did their mothers move in towards the city.

They approached the gate of their house and Momoi opened the gate for them both.  Aomine slid his key into the lock.  They always took turns in a small sort of ritual they had had since they were small.  He opened the door and immediately a cat was on them, rubbing against Aomine’s shins and serpentining through Momoi’s legs.

“Mom, come off it,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“What?” the cat asked. “I can’t be excited to see my children?”

She stepped back and transformed into her human form.  Momoi always thought she and Aomine looked exactly alike both as cats and humans.  She was tall and more angular whereas he was lanky but they had the same warm brown skin and navy blue hair.  She embraced them both, gathering them in her arms and pulling them close.  Momoi had to lift up the box of pastries to keep them from getting crushed.

“Ooh, from Atsushi’s?” she asked, eyes alight.

Momoi nodded and handed them over.  Her mother skipped into the kitchen, holding the box aloft above her head.  She smiled to herself as she stepped out of her shoes and into her house slippers.  Aomine did the same and they put their coats up on the pegs above the shoe cubbies.

She padded in towards her kitchen where she could already smell her mother’s curry cooking.  Unlike her, mother was very adept that cooking.  She had tried to teach Momoi when she was small but cooking wasn’t like magic and she simply never got the hang of it.

“Hello, darlings,” she said as she stirred.

“Hey, mom.” Aomine dropped down to give her a kiss.

She turned and captured his cheeks between her hand.

“Michiko and I missed you--it’s been almost three months.”

“Sorry,” Momoi said. “Things have been weird in the city.  Tetsu-kun is alive.”

She raised her eyebrows and let go of Aomine’s face.

“He is?”

“Sort of,” he said, rubbing his cheeks. “He’s a jikininki.”

“Oh.” She pushed stray strands of pink hair from where they fell back from her bun. “That’s...oh, Daiki.”

She cupped his face and kissed the tip of his nose.  She let up and turned to Momoi.

“My darling Satsuki--you look more radiant every time I see you, my girl.”

Momoi smiled.  Their mothers had always accepted her even before she accepted herself.

“Ooh, Sakura, they brought that matcha bread you like.”

“Alright, Michiko--be right there.” She glanced between them and then added, “will you stir the curry, my love?  I don’t trust either of them.”

Momoi couldn’t help but laugh.  Many things about their mothers didn’t change.

\--

Himuro liked to keep his hand at his victim’s pulse as he fed.  He liked feeling it speed to a frantic, staccato beat before it got slower and slower--and then stopped.  He dropped the body to the ground and licked around his mouth.  The man had tasted good.  He smacked his lips and wondered what blood type he was.  There was no difference in taste but he wondered what it was and what it said about him.  Not that it mattered.  Dead was dead unless you were him.

“A festival?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

Kuroko was about to answer but then he stopped himself.

“You and Kagami-kun both do that.”

“We’ve been siblings for a long time.”

“For vampires, perhaps.”

Anger flashed in his chest but Himuro tamped it down.  He had to keep a cool head.  That was, after all, what kept him and Kagami alive for the first few years they were on their own.

“We still remember being human.”

Kuroko’s eyes narrowed. “So do I.”

He snorted.  Kuroko dropped to his knees and stared down at the man’s corpse.

“Fifty years is still a long time for us.” He paused. “Are you going to eat or not?”

He watched him put his hands together.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Himuro almost laughed--almost.  He still didn’t like Kuroko and wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.  Instead, he leaned against the brick all of the building that formed the alley they were in and waited for Kuroko to be finished.

“So what is this festival?”

“A celebration...a banquet, that sort of thing.  You could come with Murasakibara-kun.”

Kuroko had the audacity to look arch and knowing when his face was covered in gore.  Himuro curled his lip.  He had too much to think about.  Alex and now Murasakibara.  Their night together had been fire and he wanted to recreate it.  But he had little time.  Four days to figure out how to get out of Alex’s move.  There was only one option and he was afraid to try it.

“Himuro-san?”

He blinked and looked over at Kuroko.

“Oh, I’ll.  I’ll go.”

\--

Furihata loved festivals.  As a child, he would wander away from his parents and ask strangers to buy him candied apples.  He supposed that he hadn’t quite outgrown that yet since he was walking with Akashi and held a candy apple in his hand.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Kouki?”

He tipped his head to the side as he asked and Furihata couldn’t help but like this Akashi.  The first one was scary, like a predator cornering him--singling him out from his herd as weak and defenseless.  This one was kinder, sweeter, and he bought him a candy apple.  Furihata was, admittedly, easy to please.

“You look nice in your yukata.”

“Th-thanks!” he yelped. “You too!”

Akashi cut a dashing figure in his red and white yukata.  Furihata found himself wishing that his brown one didn’t look too shabby in comparison.

“I don’t think I ever noticed this shrine before,” he said, biting into his apple.

“It isn’t a secret but.  The family likes their privacy.” He smiled and added. “My friend is a master.”

“Master?”

Akashi nodded as they walked through the courtyard between the strung lanterns and set up booths.  The shrine was of a nice size and Furihata was again surprised that he had never noticed it before.  It wasn’t far from the university, even.

“A youkai master.”

“Is that like...a Pokemon master?”

Akashi threw his head back in laughter.

“What did you do as a child?”

“Played with trains mostly.”

He felt his face flush and he knew that he surely had to be as red as his apple.  Akashi seemed to say more but a loud, familiar voice floated over to them.

“Let’s go to this booth, Kasamatsucchi.  Takoyaki!”

Furihata saw the boy--or whatever he was--from his class.  He was dressed in a royal blue yukata and was dragging someone with him.  He was...Kise and he had dragged him off to go shopping while he grilled him about Akashi.  The boy with him was shorter and broader through the chest and wore a black yukata.

“Kise, I’m full.”

Kise turned and slipped his arms around him.

“Eight weeks,” he said. “We need to fatten you back up.”

He flushed and Furihata felt like he was walking in on something.

“Kise.  Hello.”

Akashi seemed to have no qualms about intruding.  Kise turned and his immaculate features screwed up into a scowl.

“Kise,” he repeated his name and then shook his head. “It’s you.  I can’t be mad at you, can I?”

“If it helps, I’m sorry for his actions.”

Kasamatsucchi, as Kise had called him, stepped behind him.  He held something in his hand and looked at Akashi with something approaching fear.

“Is that…?” Akashi raised his eyebrows. “Really, Kise?”

“Really,” he said flatly.  He took Kasamatsu by the hand and took him away. “It was good to see you again, Fur-i-hata-cchi.”

Furihata waved and bit into his apple, not knowing what else to do.

\--

Kagami hunched his shoulders and slid his eyes over nervously.  Kuroko carried Shige in his arms as they walked towards the temple.  The dog eagerly wagged his tail and his tongue flopped out of his mouth.

“Why can’t he be in his human form?”

Shige barked and Kagami nearly jumped out of his skin.

“He’s more comfortable like this,” Kuroko explained.

“Well I’m not.”

He laughed gently.  Kuroko pressed his head against Kagami’s arm and sighed.  This was their last night.  They had no plan to stop Alex and tomorrow they would be going back to L.A.  They approached the archway and Kuroko placed Shige down on the ground.

“Do you mind?”

He barked and shifted into his human form.

“I’m gonna eat so many snacks!” he exclaimed as he darted into the shrine.

Kagami could see lanterns strung up and already could smell the tantalizing food within.  Kuroko turned to him and took his hands.

“I wish we could stay like this.”

“I know.”

He dropped his head to Kuroko’s shoulder and pulled him close.  Someone cleared their throat behind him and Kagami reluctantly pulled away.  A serious-looking young man stood at the archway of the temple with his hands tucked into his sleeves.  He wore boxy glasses and had a head of shaggy green hair.

“Hello, Midorima-kun.”

“This must be...your friend.” He narrowed his eyes.

“Yes.”

Midorima looked at him for a moment and said, “The tags are removed.”

Kuroko nodded his head and walked in.  Kagami lingered on the sidewalk and sighed.  Midorima saw his trepidation and glared.

“Is there a problem?”

Kagami glanced to the side. “I need to be invited in.”

“Oh.  Um...come in.”

Midorima stepped aside and allowed him entry.  He found Kuroko talking to an enormously tall boy with purple hair.  Kagami approached them and sniffed the air.  He had smelled that scent before.  It was sugar and something earthy.  He had smelled it in Himuro’s room the other night.  This had to be his date.

“Kagami-kun.” He had given up on having Kuroko call him by his first name. “This is Murasakibara-kun.”

He waved before he realized that he probably should have bowed.

“I’m surprised you aren’t here with Himuro-san.”

Kuroko gave him a Meaningful look and Kagami nodded his head in acknowledgement.  So this  _ was _ his date.

“I invited him,” Kuroko continued.

“Maybe Midorima didn’t,” Kagami said. “Uh--invite him in, I mean.”

Murasakibara twitched his lips and shrugged but Kagami could feel his disappointment.  He honestly had no idea where Himuro was.  He thought he would have been out feeding but Kuroko hadn’t mentioned anything about clean up.

“Hopefully he’ll turn up.” Kagami sniffed the air. “I think I’m going to get something to eat.”

He bent down to give Kuroko a swift kiss on the cheek.  As he approached a stall, though, he couldn’t help but worry about Himuro.

\--

Kuroko leaned into Kagami as they neared his apartment.  Usually they spent their time at Kuroko’s place but Shige was sleeping off his sake there and so they had decided to go to Kagami’s.  He closed his eyes and leaned into him.  This was their last night.  The festival had been too short.  It had been formal introductions.  It had been using his weak presence to avoid Aomine who seemed intent on finding him.  He didn’t want to deal with his jealous ex-boyfriend when it was his last night with Kagami.

“Do you smell that?” he asked, sniffing the air.

“No, Kagami-kun.  I don’t have your senses.” He couldn’t help but frown.  He was ruining their romantic moment. “What do you smell?”

“Blood.”

He unlocked the door and stepped in.  In the living room, there was blood everywhere.  Kuroko put his hands over his nose and mouth.  He had seen a lot of gore since he had died but this was something else.  Kagami stared in awe but he saw him lick his lips a little--he was a vampire, after all.

“What is this?” Kuroko asked.

“I don’t...Tatsuya!”

He called into the apartment.  Kuroko shut the door behind him.  There was no need for Kagami and Himuro’s neighbors to see the inside of their apartment.  The living room was covered in great splashes of blood on the carpet and walls as if there had been an altercation.  Kagami sniffed the air and followed a trail of blood into one of the bedrooms.

“Tatsuya!  Alex!”

From the room at the end of the hall, a weak voice responded, “...Taiga…”

Kagami shot out of one of the rooms and into another.  Kuroko followed close behind.  It was dark in there and, unlike his boyfriend, he didn’t have any sort of night vision.  Kuroko slid his hand out and flipped on the lightswitch.  Like the living room, there were large blood stains on the carpet and walls.  Against one wall slumped Himuro.  His hands and face were smeared with blood but Kuroko didn’t know if it was his or not.  He saw a rather serious set of claw marks on his neck but they were already healing.

“Tatsuya!” Kagami rushed to him and knelt down. “Are you alright?”

He nodded and swallowed. “Recovering.  Was Atsushi at the festival?”

Kagami furrowed his brow in confusion but Kuroko nodded.

“Yes.  He missed you.”

“Shit.” He rested his head against the wall. “I’ll have to make it up to him.”

“Tatsuya--what happened?”

Himuro laughed softly.

“We can stay, Taiga.  I did it.”

“Did what?”

He gestured with his chin to the other side of the bed.  Kagami was still at his side so Kuroko walked over to investigate.  Lying there in the largest stain of blood was the body of a woman.  Her hair was maybe blonde but it was slicked with so much blood that it was almost red.

“Kagami-kun,” he said quietly.  Kuroko stared at her and his stomach growled instinctively.

He sniffed the air and said, “Alex.”

“We’re free,” he said and let out a shaky laugh. “Turns out you  _ can _ kill your Maker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been a while but i finally finished this chapter! aomine's ~plan will have to wait as will the remaining issues between kise and akashi
> 
> hmu at http://vertigoats.tumblr.com or my public twitter @gatorposs


	10. Chapter 10

Himuro had every intention of going to the festival.  He took the night off of work and rose just as the sun was setting to meet him there.  Over the years, he had grown used to doing his hair without a reflection.  He was in the midst of all of this when Alex came into the room.  She stood in his doorway, her arms folded under her breasts.

“Enjoy your night, Tatsuya,” she purred. “We leave in the morning.”

His fingers cramped and twitched.

“We aren’t leaving.”

Alex laughed.

“I already set it up with the airline.  You’ll be transporting my coffin and you and Taiga are flying out to LAX.”

He licked his lips and tried to keep his breathing even.

“We want to stay,” he said. “Taiga is happy.  You want Taiga happy, don’t you?”

Himuro knew he had to play into the way she always treated Kagami like a child.

“Taiga can be happy back in Los Angeles,” she insisted.  “And what do you care?”

Rage flared hot in his chest and he had to stop himself from letting out a growl.

“I always care about Taiga.  He’s my brother.  You can’t bother to show up in the past thirty years to even look in on us.  Some Maker you are.”

She eased up off of the doorway, her movements relaxed but he could see the mounting tension around her mouth.

“Watch your tone, Tatsuya.”

“What do you even need us for?” he asked. “You’re two hundred years old--aren’t you powerful enough to ward off rival vampires?”

“We are a family--”

“Bullshit.”

Alex pushed some of her hair back so she could glare at him fully.

“You have one of the most powerful glamors I’ve seen and Taiga’s senses are second to none.  I need you both.”

She needed them.  They were her guard dogs, snarling to protect her--and they would.  He and Taiga had to do anything for her because she was their Maker.  She could call them whenever she pleased and they would come.

“No, you want to control us.  It has nothing to do with protecting territory.”

“You don’t understand vampire politics, Tatsuya.”

He let out a low growl and felt his fangs slip down and his brow furrow.

“No, I don’t.  Because you never taught them to us.  You let us kick around for two decades before disappearing to fuck all nowhere and now expect us to be your pawns in some game of chess with gangs back in L.A.  Well we aren’t playing.”

Alex cocked her head to the side and smiled slow and wide. “I thought I told you to watch your mouth.”

Himuro curled his lips back from his fangs and lunged towards her.  Alex hadn’t been expecting it and he managed to knock her into the wall.

“Bad boy,” she tsked and shoved him back.  Himuro stumbled and she doubled over in pain.  The weakness of being a Maker--being unable to harm your progeny.

He rushed her again and managed to knock her into the room at the end of the hall.  Alex reached out to claw his face.  Himuro turned towards her hand and let her.  She howled in pain and he squeezed his eyes shut against the sting.  He flung her off of him and wiped the blood from his brow.

“You’re almost four times my age,” he growled. “And yet I’m beating you.”

Alex swallowed, her face pale with pain. “You’re using it against me.”

“I am.”

Himuro lunged again, this time fangs first.  Alex caught him and raked her claws down his throat.  She screamed in agony and Himuro took the opportunity to headbutt her.  He drew his own claws down her chest, tearing the skin.  They took turns dealing blows and biting and clawing at one another.  The room was splattered with so much blood that Jackson Pollack probably would have told them to tone it down.  Himuro panted.  He was dizzy but he knew that loss of blood wouldn’t kill him--or Alex.  His bangs were matted against his face with blood and he didn’t know if it was his or hers.  Himuro, though, he had a secret weapon.  His entire life before his transformation, he had been obsessed with death.  Even in his afterlife, he had his coffin blanket and his black and white photos of dead movie stars.  He embraced death.  He even wore it around his neck--unlike Taiga, the chain that held his ring was made of silver.  More than that, he kept death in a drawer.  Alex was too busy being doubled over in pain to see him leave the room and come back.

“We’re staying,” he said, breathlessly.  He needed to sit down--needed to let himself heal.  But not yet.

She looked up and bared her fangs in a hiss.  Himuro hissed back.  He drew the stake and, before she could react, he drove it into her chest.  Alex screamed and fell onto the floor.  Blood geysered from the wound.  Himuro had never seen one of his kind die but he knew it was often dramatic.  He stared at her as he watched the light dim from her eyes and she lay still.  He stumbled towards the wall and slumped down, exhausted.  First, he would wait for his wounds to heal and then he would figure out what to do next.

\--

“You killed Alex?!” Kagami stared at the corpse of his Maker in shock.

Himuro nodded from his spot on the floor.

“Was Atsushi at the festival?”

Kuroko nodded.

“Shit...I’ll have to make it up to him…”

He rested his head against the wall.  Kagami, meanwhile, was in shock.  He stared at the bloody mess of the room and Alex and felt...nothing.  At the festival, he had felt some kind of sharp pain in his mind but he had been preoccupied with eating things served on skewers and hadn’t paid much attention.

“What happened?”

“I told you: I killed Alex.”

Kagami put his hands in his hair and took in the blood again.  Worse, the smell of the blood was making him hungry.  He saw Kuroko lick his lips.

“Don’t eat a vampire,” he said. “You don’t know what it’ll do to you.”

He smiled. “Fair point, Kagami-kun.”

“Don’t talk like this is normal--either of you.  Tatsuya, goddamnit!  There’s a body in our apartment and the entire room looks like some serial killer’s slumber party!”

Kuroko arched his eyebrows.

“You know it’s bad when Kagami-kun lapses into English.”

Kagami was mad--he could feel it building in his chest, putting pressure on his ribs.  Kuroko and Himuro didn’t seem to realize the position they were in and the smell--the smell was making him both hungry and nauseated.

“Stop it, the both of you!” he snapped.  He ducked down and put his hands over his head.  He was dizzy, all of a sudden.

He felt Kuroko’s arms wrap around him.

“It’s alright,” he whispered. “I can call someone about the blood.”

He pressed a kiss to Kagami’s temple.

“I’m sorry.”

In his life--both of them--Kagami had never seen this much blood.  His kills were usually quick and even though Kuroko fed messily, it was only one person.  A person--not a vampire.

“Call your person.” Himuro got up off of the wall and pushed his hair from his eyes. “I’m going to wash up.”

“What about Alex-san?” Kuroko asked.

“We’ll put her on the roof and she’ll burn with the sunrise.  No biggie.”

He shrugged and walked towards the bathroom.  Kagami knew there was something more he was keeping with him but he had to fight down his own bile before he would be able to say anything.

\--

Momoi had never been to Kagami’s apartment but Kuroko’s directions were clear enough.  He had texted her asking to come with a spell that would erase the presence of blood and, of course, upon hearing that, Aomine had insisted on coming with her.  He was already mad that Kuroko left the festival before he could talk to him.  He perched on her shoulder, his tail coming down to a question mark curl on her chest.  He flicked the tip, the soft fur brushing against her arm as she walked.

Kuroko answered the door when she knocked and he looked unharmed but she knew it wasn’t him.  He didn’t even _have_ blood anymore.

“What is he doing here?” he asked.

She felt Aomine’s body tense on her shoulder, his claws coming out to dig slightly into the skin.

“Dai-chan was concerned.  Where’s the blood?”

“This way.”

He led her to the bedroom at the end of the hall.  Inside, blood was splattered everywhere.  Aomine leapt down from her shoulder and took on his human form.

“What the fuck?” he demanded.

Kagami glared at him--Momoi had been told about their confrontation in Kuroko’s bedroom.

“Kuroko called whatshername--he didn’t call you.”

She was a little offended that Kagami didn’t know her name when she knew his but he also had at least identified her correctly so she couldn’t be _too_ mad.

.”I heard Tetsu was in a room full of blood so I came with her.  Sorry I still care about him.”

To that, Kagami let out a low growl.  His eyes, which were a rather striking shade of crimson, began to turn yellow in the center of his iris.  Momoi gathered her magic into her hands, ready to defend her brother.

“Kagami-kun.” Kuroko’s voice was quiet but firm.

His eyes returned to normal and he relaxed.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Tatsuya killed our Maker.”

“Can vampires do that?”

“Apparently.”

Tatsuya had to be Himuro, the one who Murasakibara liked.

“Where is he?”

Kagami pointed down the hall.  He was deciding not to be communicative.  She sighed--she was doing this as a favor to Kuroko, not him.  She flicked her wrist and the blood disappeared.

“Thank you, Momoi-san.” Kuroko bowed.

She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Aomine still had his arms crossed and he was glaring at Kagami.

“What?” he asked. “You got a problem, cat-boy?”

He curled his lip and Momoi knew that nothing good was about to come out of his mouth.

“You almost let Tetsu be in a violent situation with your vampire bullshit.”

Kagami rolled his eyes.

“Please.  You’re gonna preach at me when you’re the one that got him killed?”

Aomine growled and she saw him channeling power into his hands.  Kagami noticed this as well since he shifted into his vampiric face.

“You don’t know him,” Aomine spit out. “I do.”

“He’s right here, you know,” Kagami shot back. “He can speak for himself.”

“That’s true, Aomine-kun.”

Kuroko stepped between them and leveled Aomine with a stare.

“You should go.”

“Tetsu-kun’s right.  Come on.”

Momoi patted her shoulder and, reluctantly, Aomine became a cat once more and leapt onto the shelf she made.  As she left, she could feel him growling against her neck.

\--

Himuro stopped by the bakery on his way to work.  He was surprised that Murasakibara wasn’t behind the counter.  Instead there was a slim boy with sharp features and shaggy, ash blond hair.  He wore a purple apron and looked bored.

“Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

Himuro shifted the contents of the plastic bag in his hand.

“It’s me.  Who are you?”

He tipped his head to the side.

“You don’t remember me?”

“No?”

Himuro was getting tired.  He didn’t know this boy and he wasn’t sure why he was supposed to.  Unlike his brother, he prided himself on his memory.

“I looked different.”

Murasakibara pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen and glowered.

“Fuku-chin stop being like that,” he drawled.

He saw Himuro and stilled.  His mouth twitched a little and he could tell that he was hurt.  Himuro lifted up the shopping bag.

“Kuroko told me you liked umaibo.” He put it on the counter. “I’m sorry about the festival.  I’d like to make it up to you.”

Fuku-chin--or whoever he was--made a gagging noise as he ate a custard bun.  Murasakibara took the bag.  Himuro watched him and tried not to modulate or glamor him.  He usually used it to get what he wanted but he was stopping himself from doing it with Murasakibara.

“Alright,” he said and Himuro knew that he was on the right path.  He shifted his mouth and said, “Fuku-chin is my kanabou.”

He took a moment to put it together in his mind before nodding.

“So you’re the one who split that guy’s head?”

He nodded.

“Fukui Kensuke,” he said through a full mouth. “Now are you buying something or not?”

\--

Aomine had the dream again as he did almost every night.  It was romanticized, dramaticized.  Kuroko letting go of his hand and getting swept away by the car.  The car in his dream was red but Aomine didn’t remember what color it actually was.

Beyond the accident, beyond what took Kuroko away from him.  When they first met, Aomine was in his human form.  He sat down at a table to wait for his sister and it turned out to already be occupied.  Kuroko Tetsuya.

He chased him for some time, wanting to get to know him, get close to him.  He ignored Akashi’s warnings and threats and pursued him.  This wispy, ethereal boy with knowing blue eyes and a calming, even voice.  Before, it was only Momoi who could calm him down from his rages but Kuroko would be there to press cool fingers against his forehead and then replace them with the gentle touch of his lips.

He had been alive for three centuries and had never felt love like he did for Kuroko.  Love for him was a familial thing.  His mothers and Momoi.  Kuroko turned that on its head and he was dizzy for days after meeting him.

Losing him was fatal for his heart.  He didn’t attend the funeral and spent days yowling in the streets outside his house.  His parents moved away almost immediately and the house was dark, cold...lifeless.  It was his fault.  They had been fighting for weeks.  Akashi wanted them to break up and Kuroko claimed that the Youkai community needed to embrace humans beyond just the Midorima family.  He said they were wrong.  They were wrong in their beliefs and their tradition.  He was so sure of himself, so sure of what he wanted.  Selfishness...the crime he was paying for in the afterlife.

And who the fuck was Kagami anyway?  Some up himself vampire from Los Angeles.  He and Kuroko had had a deal.  Aomine could have had a deal with him.  Now they were together.  They were together and sickeningly in love.  He saw them at the festival, arm in arm.  It made him sick.

He had had a plan.  A grand gesture to get him back.  He wanted to get him away from Kagami and show him how they were, how they could be again.  Kuroko had left before Aomine could even attempt it.

Now he awoke in a cold sweat, unable to forget his death and what he lost.

\--

As he got off of the train, Kise was aware of the presence behind him and he stilled.  He was expecting this.  Seeing Kasamatsu at the festival would push him forward.

“Akashicchi,” he said without turning.

He saw him step around the column and the lights of the station illuminated his dual-colored eyes.

“Ryouta.”

“I’m not afraid of your punishment,” he said simply. “I’m more powerful than you and.  Kasamatsucchi has my hoshi no tama.”

Something pulsed on Akashi’s face and the smooth veneer he wore almost cracked.  Kise knew he had him beat but he knew that, more than anything, he hated to lose.

“I miss your brother,” he said. “Doesn’t Furihatacchi?”

Another train pulled into the station and Akashi stepped towards him to usher him away from the coming crowd.

“How do you know him?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Kise smirked. “Now, what do you want?”

He stared at him, the shadows of the corner they were in making his face look even more supernatural.

“I don’t care about you or your human pet.  Nor do I care for my brother’s new fascination with Furihata Kouki.  If you want to waste his lifetime, go ahead.” He said all of this through clenched teeth. “I’m here because he’s back.”

Kise arched his brows.  That was news to him.  Usually he sensed him.

“I’m not afraid of him.” He cocked his head to the side. “And I’m not afraid of you.”

Akashi glanced towards the train as the new one pulled away into the depths of the tunnel.

“I’m afraid of him.”

That was a surprise to Kise.  Akashi never feared anything except loss of his own power.  Kise knew he was dangerous but for Akashi to be afraid, well, maybe he could stand to be a little cautious himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sharkgirl wrote a gift fic for this 'verse! see more midotaka here: [Don't Be Stingy!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6694519)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well this took Some Time. i'm sorry it's not more substantial! this fic is still being updated (promise!) but i have a lot of other stuff going on as well.

Knocking.  Kasamatsu opened his eyes and slowly registered the noise.  Someone was knocking on the door to his apartment.  He sat up in bed and groggily rubbed his eyes.  It was probably Kise.  He had left after the festival but was surely back.  Since revealing the truth to him, Kise had given up pretending to be as human as he had and went about keeping odd hours.  He glanced at the luminescent numbers on his clock to see that it was almost three o’clock.  Yes, it definitely had to be Kise.

He trudged towards the door, stifling a yawn with one hand and rubbing sleep from his eyes with the heel of the other.

“Who is it?” he called and then cursed himself.  His still awakening mind had led his mouth to betray a cardinal rule of horror movies.

“Kise!” He heard a voice singsong on the other side of the door.

Kasamatsu rolled his eyes but smiled a bit at his own deduction.  He should be a detective instead of a session musician.  He snorted.  Right.  He opened the door to see that, sure enough, Kise was on the other side.  He had shed his yukata and was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a tight, white t-shirt.  That was an unusual choice for him, he thought.  Kise, of course, made the simple outfit look phenomenal but it wasn’t to his usual tastes.

“Hey.” He stepped in and tipped his head to the side and hooked his thumbs through the loops of his pants. “Can I come inside?”

Kasamatsu arched a brow. “Aren’t you already?”

He put his arms around his neck and leaned down so their lips were almost touching.

“I wasn’t talking about the apartment.”

Kise kissed him and closed the door with his foot.  Kasamatsu wrapped his arms around his waist and tilted his face up to deepen the kiss.

“I missed you,” he whispered.

He rolled his eyes even though he felt his cheeks heating up. “You just saw me.”

“No...since.  I’m just so glad you’re back.”

Kise pressed himself against him and buried his face in the crook of his shoulder.  Kasamatsu stroked his back.

“Kise…”

He gave him hot, wet little kisses on his neck and whispered, “Kasamatsu...”

At once, he was cold all over.  Kasamatsu pulled back and grabbed at the orb that hung around his neck.  He took a step away and held it out in front of him like a talismen.

“Who are you?”

“Kasamatsu?” Whoever this was stroked his hand down his collarbone as it rose from the neckline of his shirt.  He studied his face with Kise’s golden eyes.

His mind flashed back to that redhead in his apartment.  He was different from the nicer version of him he had met at the festival but Kise had told him about that.  Was he back?  The other one--the one who had put him in a coma.

“Who are you?” he repeated.  He gripped the talismen tightly as if somehow Kise, the real Kise, could be summoned by it.

“It’s me,” he said and held his hands up. “Kise.  Now c’mere.”

He crooked his finger and smiled in a come hither way but Kasamatsu wasn’t buying it.

“You aren’t Kise.”

He took a step back and looked for something, anything, that could be used as a weapon.  If a regular weapon could even work against a youkai.

“Why won’t you believe me…” His face screwed up for a moment. “Oh, shit.  I forgot about his stupid little honorifics.”

His features shifted and Kise was gone.  In his place was a man of about the same height but he was more muscular than Kise, less willowy.  His hair was ash gray and hung over a pair of reptilian eyes.  He was handsome but in an ugly, sneering sort of way that put him on edge.

“Another goddamn youkai,” he said with a growl. “What do  _ you _ want?”

“I wanted to see how you tasted.  And it was  _ nice _ .” He licked his thumb and Kasamatsu fought the urge to spit.  He had had this guy’s tongue in his mouth.

“Well, you did.  Now get out.”

The man shook his head and folded his arms over his chest.  Kasamatsu shouldn’t have been bothered by it considering the circumstances, but he hadn’t even taken his shoes off, the bastard.

“Not so fast.  You see, I need something from Ryouta and I figured you’re the perfect bargaining chip.”

So this was what it was like being the human boyfriend to a centuries old kitsune.  Kasamatsu clenched his fists.  If this guy thought he was going to lie down and let him use him as a hostage, he was wrong.  The door to his apartment opened and he almost jumped.  To his credit, the gray-haired man in the room with him did as well.  For the second time, Kise stood in his doorway but Kasamatsu had a feeling this was the real one.  He was dressed fashionably this time, at least.  Kasamatsu wondered, for a moment, if the orb he had been given truly  _ had _ summoned him.

“Shougo-kun,” he said, voice low and surprisingly dangerous.  Electricity sparkled at the tips of his long fingers.

“Ah, Ryouta,” he purred, apparently over his surprise. “So good to see you.  I was just getting to know your little human.  He’s a good kisser.”

The electricity at his fingers grew brighter and large enough to make audible crackling noises in the air.

“If you hurt him…”

“Relax.  I was just having fun.”

This man--Shougo, apparently, and Kasamatsu certainly noticed the lack of a cutesy ‘cchi’ at the end of his name--held his hands up in mock surrender.

“I need your help, Ryouta.  I’m not going to hurt your human.”

“I have a name.”

He ignored him and met Kise’s eyes.  Blue electricity danced between his fingers and Kasamatsu took a step back.  He wasn’t sure what this guy was but he didn’t want to be near either of them if they began fighting.

“You sensed me, I guess?” Shougo asked.

“I always do.” He lowered his eyes and said, “ _ Yako. _ ”

Kasamatsu raised his eyebrows.  Oh, that wasn’t good.

“What do you want, Shougo-kun, that you would go to all this trouble and make me mad?” Kise cocked his head to the side and didn’t stop the sparks.

“I want protection.”

“Funny way to go about it.”

“Haha.  No.  You know why--you have to have sensed him?”

Something passed Kise’s face and the lightning faded from his hand.

“No, I haven’t.  Akashicchi said he was coming but I didn’t sense him.  You scared?”

“Terrified.”

Kasamatsu felt uneasy.  Kise seemed nervous, too.  Who was this that had two clearly powerful kitsune on edge?

“I owe you nothing.”

“No, shit.  Why do you think I had to pretend to seduce your boyfriend to even get your attention?” He scowled and added, “It’s killing me to ask this.”

To that, Kise smiled.

“I know.  I love it.”

He stepped past him and went to Kasamatsu.

“Are you alright?” He gently placed his hands on his face.

“Yeah.  Dandy.  Gonna brush my teeth for seven years but I’m good.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of Kise’s nose. “I’m good.”

Kise smiled and turned back to the man.

“You can stay with me, Shougo-kun, but you are never to put another hand on Kasamatsucchi.”

“Deal.  Fine.  Whatever.”

They shook on it and Kasamatsu couldn’t help but feel that he was missing a very crucial bit of this conversation.  He also had the sinking suspicion that he was going to find out the answer very soon.

\--

Kagami couldn’t sleep and he knew that it wasn’t because this was the first night since getting together that he didn’t spend it with Kuroko.  His room thankfully had no windows but he knew it was daylight.  It was daylight and Alex was burning on the roof.  His Maker.  She treated him like a child and she could be frightening and cruel but she was still the only parent he had had in decades.

“Taiga?  You awake?”

He sat up in bed.

“Yeah.”

The door opened and Himuro stepped in.  He looked downcast as he shuffled towards the bed.

“It’s hitting me,” he said, “what I did.  That I killed our Maker.  I...Alex was awful but she was ours, wasn’t she?”

Kagami nodded.  Himuro sat at the edge of the bed and stared at his hands in his lap.  He wore many silver rings and Kagami never figured out why.  He always seemed so obsessed with his own death and afterlife at the same time.

“I didn’t want to leave,” he said. “I’ve...met someone and.  So have you.”

“You hate Kuroko.”

“I do,” he agreed. “But he makes you happy so.  I’m not going to become her.  I know that now, especially.  Being killed by my own family for being too controlling isn’t how I want to go out.”

Kagami cracked a smile.  He really was trying to change.  He knew neither of them were going to sleep today so he inched closer.

“Tell me about this Atsushi guy.”

Himuro smiled slyly.

“Well, surprising you none at all, he’s big…”

\--

Momoi could sense bad times coming.  It didn’t have to do with the arrival of the vampires, as much as she knew Aomine wished that it did, but they were upon them.  She knew Haizaki was back in town, frightened and scared with his tails between his legs.  He had gone to Kise, his sworn rival, for help.  Akashi was on edge, too, from what she saw.   _ He _ was out more, and she saw how it left that skittish brunette from Kuroko’s biology class confused.  Takao wasn’t leaving the Midorima family shrine.  Fukui was never out even to help at the bakery.  He was always cold and metal at Murasakibara’s side, ready to be used.

She knew he was coming.  He knew that Nijimura was gone off in the mountains for a time.  How he knew, she wasn’t sure, but everyone knew he was coming if he wasn’t already here.  Nijimura had been gone since before Kuroko died, which she reckoned probably indirectly led to his death.  Him not being there led to them not having a youkai master other than poor Midorima who was more concerned with the comings and goings of his family’s shrine than their lives.  Him not being there led to Akashi’s anger and bitterness.  Not that it could truly be Nijimura’s fault.  He had had to go.  His family...his father…

She couldn’t dwell on it.  Momoi had been alive long enough to know that dwelling on the past didn’t erase it and it certainly didn’t fix the future.  It was something Aomine certainly needed to learn.  If he let go of his intense desire to be with Kuroko again, they could be friends, she was sure.

“I don’t like it,” Aomine said. “I keep being afraid I’ll bump into him.”

“I didn’t think you were afraid of him.”

He looked at her for a moment before shaking his head.

“No, Haizaki.  I don’t wanna see that fucker’s ugly face again.”

She had to laugh.

“He’s staying with Ki-chan.”

“I wonder what he’s giving him since Kise hates him more than any of us.”

She shrugged but she was certain that it had to do with him.  It seemed that one problem fed into the next.  It was like a bad video game or one of those old anime shows where the issues just got bigger and badder.  Now it was him.

“Does he know about Tetsu-kun, y’think?” she asked.

Aomine shrugged. “I hope not.  But, if he does...he has...Kagami.”

He winced as he said but she could tell he was being honest.  Kagami was strong, very strong.  His brother, too, was able to kill their Maker.  Then again, he had never shown interest in Kuroko when he was a human and humans were his favorite playthings.

“We’ll just have to wait,” she said with a sigh. “Your favorite thing.”

Aomine scowled and gave her the finger but he didn’t deny it.

\--

Akashi wasn’t a stranger to internal turmoil.  He and his brother shared a body, after all, and they often disagreed.  Two demons bound into one entity was bound to be messy.  They were similar enough in disposition but their methods were different.  Their reactions to things were different.  He was the protector, the guardian.  He had to keep his brother safe.  He didn’t mind that squishy human he fancied so much.  He was harmless and almost sweet.  Still, he wasn’t letting him out until he revealed himself.  He knew he was already here, watching them, and he wanted to make sure he was the Akashi he saw first.

He sipped his tea as he sat at the wrought iron table outside a sidewalk café and watched people go by as evening turned to night.

“Seijirou.”

He heard the way his voice curled around his name and turned in his seat.  As he did, he tried not to vomit at the thought of his name in his mouth.  He placed his hands in his lap and smiled in what he hoped was a nonthreatening manner.  If he kept things civil and polite, he could find out what he wanted before things got ugly.

“Hello, Nash.  It’s been some time, hasn't it?”


End file.
